pas 2060 carbon neutrality

Courtesy: pas 2060 carbon neutrality

Action

In starting to work towards climate neutrality, businesses and local administrations can make use of an environmental (or sustainability) management system or EMS established by the international standard ISO 14001 (developed by the International Organization for Standardization). Another EMS framework is EMAS, the European Eco Management and Audit Scheme, used by numerous companies throughout the EU. Many local authorities apply the management system to certain sectors of their administration or certify their whole operations.

Reduction

One of the strongest arguments for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is that it will often save money. Examples of possible actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are:

• Limiting energy usage and emissions from transportation (walking, using bicycles or public transport, avoiding flying, using low-energy vehicles, carpooling), as well as from buildings, equipment, animals and processes.
• Obtaining electricity and other forms of energy from zero or low carbon energy sources.
• Electrification: using electrical energy, ideally from non-emitting sources, rather than combustion. For example, in transportation (e.g., electric vehicles and electric trains) and heating (e.g. heat pumps and electric heating).

Wind power, nuclear power, hydropower, solar power, and geothermal are the energy sources with the lowest life-cycle emissions, which includes deployment and operations.

Offsetting

The use of carbon offsets aims to neutralize a certain volume of greenhouse gas emissions by funding projects which should cause an equivalent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions somewhere else, such as tree planting. Under the premise “First reduce what you can, then offset the remainder”, offsetting can be done by supporting a responsible carbon project, or by buying carbon offsets or carbon credits.

Carbon offsetting is also a tool for several local authorities in the world.

In 2015, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), following the mandate of the CDM Executive board, launched a dedicated website where organizations, companies, but also private person are able to offset their footprint (https://offset.climateneutralnow.org/) with the aim of facilitating everyone’s participation in the process of promoting sustainability.

Offsetting is sometimes seen as a charged and contentious issue. James Hansen describes offsets as “modern day indulgences, sold to an increasingly carbon-conscious public to absolve their climate sins.”. This may also be interpreted as greenwashing, especially in the case of most company commitments, which do not include actionable goals and schedules that implicate that the ‘net-zero’ emission goals are more than good publicity.

Evaluation and repeating

This phase includes evaluation of the results and compilation of a list of suggested improvements, with results documented and reported, so that experience gained of what does (and does not) work is shared with those who can put it to good use. Science and technology move on, regulations become tighter, the standards people demand go up. So the second cycle will go further than the first, and the process will continue, each successive phase building on and improving on what went before.

Being carbon neutral is increasingly seen as good corporate or state social responsibility and a growing list of corporations and states are announcing dates for when they intend to become fully neutral. Events such as the G8 Summit and organizations like the World Bank are also using offset schemes to become carbon neutral. Artists like The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd have made albums or tours carbon neutral.

Direct and indirect emissions

To be considered carbon neutral, an organization must reduce its carbon footprint to zero. Determining what to include in the carbon footprint depends upon the organization and the standards they are following.

Generally, direct emissions sources must be reduced and offset completely, while indirect emissions from purchased electricity can be reduced with renewable energy purchases.

Direct emissions include all pollution from manufacturing, company owned vehicles and reimbursed travel, livestock and any other source that is directly controlled by the owner. Indirect emissions include all emissions that result from the use or purchase of a product. For instance, the direct emissions of an airline are all the jet fuel that is burned, while the indirect emissions include manufacture and disposal of airplanes, all the electricity used to operate the airline’s office, and the daily emissions from employee travel to and from work. In another example, the power company has a direct emission of greenhouse gas, while the office that purchases it considers it an indirect emission.

Cities and countries represent a challenge with regard to emissions counting as production of goods and services within their territory can be related either to domestic consumption or exports. Conversely the citizens also consume imported goods and services. To avoid double counting in any emissions calculation it should be made clear where the emissions are to be counted: at the site of production or consumption. This may be complicated given long production chains in a globalized economy. Moreover, the embodied energy and consequences of large-scale raw material extraction required for renewable energy systems and electric vehicle batteries is likely to represent its own complications – local emissions at the site of utilization are likely to be very small but life-cycle emissions can still be significant.

Carbon is used as both a source of electricity and a feedstock in energy-intensive industries, making decarbonization impossible. If CO₂ emissions and sources are to be captured and stopped from entering the atmosphere, an alternate chemical solution must be formulated that achieves the desired output while not releasing CO₂ as a by-product