Courtesy: pas 2060 carbon neutrality
Carbon neutrality is usually achieved by combining the following steps, although these may vary depending whether the strategy is being implemented by individuals, companies, organizations, cities, regions, or countries:
Commitment
In the case of individuals, decision-making is likely to be straightforward, but for more complex institutions it usually requires political leadership and popular agreement that the effort is worth making.
Commitment from countries and the organizations within is critical to the forward movement of Carbon Neutrality. The Net Zero Challenge Report states that “commitments made by governments so far are far from sufficient.” One way to obtain more commitment would be to set carbon-neutral goals but allow flexibility for the organizations and governments to decide how to achieve these goals. Large well-known companies like Apple are laying out roadmaps to help these commitments become a reality. Then lesser well-known companies like Kinaxis, a supply chain management company, met their net-zero goal in 2020 by fully committing to their carbon emission objectives.
Counting and analyzing
Counting and analyzing the emissions that need to be eliminated, and how it can be done, is an important step in the process of achieving carbon neutrality, as it establishes the priorities for where action needs to be taken and progress can begin being monitored. This can be achieved through a greenhouse gas inventory that aims to answer questions such as:
- Which operations, activities and units should be targeted?
- Which sources should be included (see section Direct and indirect emissions)?
- Who is responsible for which emissions?
- Which gases should be included?
- For individuals, carbon calculators simplify compiling an inventory. Typically they measure electricity consumption in kWh, the amount and type of fuel used to heat water and warm the house, and how many kilometers an individual drives, flies and rides in different vehicles. Individuals may also set the limits of the system they are concerned with, for example, whether they want to balance out their personal greenhouse gas emissions, their household emissions, or their company’s.
- There are plenty of carbon calculators available online, which vary significantly in the parameters they measure. Some, for example, factor in only cars, aircraft and household energy use. Others cover household waste or leisure interests as well. In some circumstances, going beyond carbon neutral and becoming carbon negative (usually after a certain length of time taken to reach carbon breakeven) is an objective.
- Cities and countries are challenging for carbon counting and analyzing. This is because the production of goods and services within their territory can be linked either to domestic consumption or exports. On the other hand, citizens also consume imported goods and services. To avoid double counting in the calculation of emissions, it should be specified where the emissions should be counted: at the point of production or consumption. This can be complicated given the long production chains in a globalized economy. In addition, embodied energy and the consequences of large-scale resource extraction needed for renewable energy systems and EV batteries are likely to present their own complications – local point-of-use emissions are likely to be greatly reduced, but life cycle emissions may still remain significant.