Post by account_disabled on Feb 28, 2024 2:17:53 GMT -5
Climate change, sustainability, green energy and more are concepts and strategies that are frequently heard today. Among them, knowing what net zero is stands out, a concept that many companies have adopted for their current and future objectives.
It is so relevant that currently 1 in 5 large companies have net zero objectives, a means to confront the climate crisis.
What is net zero
According to the United Nations , net zero is having zero greenhouse gas emissions or zero carbon for the organization or company and its entire value chain. It involves reducing indirect emissions from suppliers to end users. This objective is especially essential to maintain the planet's temperature at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Now, faced with this definition, there are still many questions, how to understand what Greenhouse Gases are about.
Greenhouse Gases (GHG)
GHGs are a natural phenomenon. According to Changsha Mobile Number List the US Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ), GHGs are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. This implies that in planetary history Greenhouse Gases allowed the ideal temperature to generate complex life on Earth.
However, excess GHG is affecting life on the planet. Among these gases are:
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Carbon dioxide is a colorless gas that is generated when any substance containing carbon is burned; it is also a product of respiration and fermentation. CO2 enters the atmosphere through:
Burning fossil fuels (coal, natural gas and oil).
Solid waste, trees and other biological materials.
Result of certain chemical reactions (for example, the manufacture of cement).
This is removed from the atmosphere (or “sequestered”) when plants absorb it through photosynthesis as part of the biological carbon cycle. CO2 is the main GHG that contributes to climate change, and one of the reasons is fossil fuels, hence the need to transition to green energy.
Methane (CH4)
Methane is produced in nature by the decomposition of organic matter . Have you seen a dead animal that begins to inflate? Or the smell of cattle feces? That's methane and it's also emitted during the production and transportation of coal, natural gas and oil.
Methane emissions are also the result of livestock farming and other agricultural practices and land use.
Nitrous oxide (N2O)
Nitrous oxide is produced naturally by bacteria and in the atmosphere contributes to climate change. It is also emitted by:
Intensive agriculture processes.
Burning of biomass and fossil fuels.
Use of nitrogen fertilizers.
Deforestation.
It is a gas that can last up to 100 years in the atmosphere, that is, much of the current nitrous oxide has been in the atmosphere since the first decades of the 20th century.
Fluorinated gases
Among the fluorinated gases are: hydrofluorocarbons , perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons and nitrogen trifluoride; These are synthetic GHGs and come from industrial processes.
As can be seen, such GHGs contribute to global warming and last for decades. Even a century inside the atmosphere, so reducing these emissions is urgent both for the present and for the future.
Commitments to climate change
The UN has opted to take actions to achieve net zero. Especially when emphasizing the pollution generated by certain countries, since the three main emitters of greenhouse gases (China, the United States and the European Union) contribute 16 times more emissions than the bottom 100 countries; These only contribute 3% of GHG emissions.
The path to net zero began in 1997 with the Kyoto Protocol, to continue in 2015 with the Paris Agreement , which was adopted by 196 countries to reduce global warming and increase resilience to climate change. Its general objective: limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius as the maximum commitment, which was renewed at COP26 ( 2021 ).
In addition, other organizations such as COP25 launched ( 2018 ) the Race to zero strategy , which aims to bring together the leadership and action of all non-state actors, to achieve a resilient future without GHG emissions.
In fact, many companies aligned with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have not only committed to working with their stakeholders to achieve net zero by 2050 or sooner, but stakeholders are expected to establish intermediate goals to reduce emissions. by 2030, according to climate science.
So far have the targets come that according to a new report from the UK's Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, 21% of the world's 2,000 largest public companies now have decarbonisation targets.
Yet for all the talk of net zero, few companies have committed to reducing their emissions in line with science, and even fewer have plans to do so by 2030.
What are the biggest greenhouse gas emitters doing?
Signal Climate Analytics , in partnership with Reuters , shed light on what the world's 250 largest greenhouse gas emitters are doing in the battle against climate change in a series of articles in this magazine.
What is net zero greenhouse gases?
Taking into account the third series, Reuters analyzed the top 51-75 publicly traded issuers and refined its methodology to include whether companies that have set goals aligned with science have also set goals to transform their businesses over the next decade. The results indicated that:
Of the 25 member companies, 11 have objectives aligned with science, but only six meet the higher bar of establishing intermediate objectives for 2030.
It is so relevant that currently 1 in 5 large companies have net zero objectives, a means to confront the climate crisis.
What is net zero
According to the United Nations , net zero is having zero greenhouse gas emissions or zero carbon for the organization or company and its entire value chain. It involves reducing indirect emissions from suppliers to end users. This objective is especially essential to maintain the planet's temperature at 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Now, faced with this definition, there are still many questions, how to understand what Greenhouse Gases are about.
Greenhouse Gases (GHG)
GHGs are a natural phenomenon. According to Changsha Mobile Number List the US Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ), GHGs are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. This implies that in planetary history Greenhouse Gases allowed the ideal temperature to generate complex life on Earth.
However, excess GHG is affecting life on the planet. Among these gases are:
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Carbon dioxide is a colorless gas that is generated when any substance containing carbon is burned; it is also a product of respiration and fermentation. CO2 enters the atmosphere through:
Burning fossil fuels (coal, natural gas and oil).
Solid waste, trees and other biological materials.
Result of certain chemical reactions (for example, the manufacture of cement).
This is removed from the atmosphere (or “sequestered”) when plants absorb it through photosynthesis as part of the biological carbon cycle. CO2 is the main GHG that contributes to climate change, and one of the reasons is fossil fuels, hence the need to transition to green energy.
Methane (CH4)
Methane is produced in nature by the decomposition of organic matter . Have you seen a dead animal that begins to inflate? Or the smell of cattle feces? That's methane and it's also emitted during the production and transportation of coal, natural gas and oil.
Methane emissions are also the result of livestock farming and other agricultural practices and land use.
Nitrous oxide (N2O)
Nitrous oxide is produced naturally by bacteria and in the atmosphere contributes to climate change. It is also emitted by:
Intensive agriculture processes.
Burning of biomass and fossil fuels.
Use of nitrogen fertilizers.
Deforestation.
It is a gas that can last up to 100 years in the atmosphere, that is, much of the current nitrous oxide has been in the atmosphere since the first decades of the 20th century.
Fluorinated gases
Among the fluorinated gases are: hydrofluorocarbons , perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, chlorofluorocarbons, hydrochlorofluorocarbons and nitrogen trifluoride; These are synthetic GHGs and come from industrial processes.
As can be seen, such GHGs contribute to global warming and last for decades. Even a century inside the atmosphere, so reducing these emissions is urgent both for the present and for the future.
Commitments to climate change
The UN has opted to take actions to achieve net zero. Especially when emphasizing the pollution generated by certain countries, since the three main emitters of greenhouse gases (China, the United States and the European Union) contribute 16 times more emissions than the bottom 100 countries; These only contribute 3% of GHG emissions.
The path to net zero began in 1997 with the Kyoto Protocol, to continue in 2015 with the Paris Agreement , which was adopted by 196 countries to reduce global warming and increase resilience to climate change. Its general objective: limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius as the maximum commitment, which was renewed at COP26 ( 2021 ).
In addition, other organizations such as COP25 launched ( 2018 ) the Race to zero strategy , which aims to bring together the leadership and action of all non-state actors, to achieve a resilient future without GHG emissions.
In fact, many companies aligned with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have not only committed to working with their stakeholders to achieve net zero by 2050 or sooner, but stakeholders are expected to establish intermediate goals to reduce emissions. by 2030, according to climate science.
So far have the targets come that according to a new report from the UK's Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, 21% of the world's 2,000 largest public companies now have decarbonisation targets.
Yet for all the talk of net zero, few companies have committed to reducing their emissions in line with science, and even fewer have plans to do so by 2030.
What are the biggest greenhouse gas emitters doing?
Signal Climate Analytics , in partnership with Reuters , shed light on what the world's 250 largest greenhouse gas emitters are doing in the battle against climate change in a series of articles in this magazine.
What is net zero greenhouse gases?
Taking into account the third series, Reuters analyzed the top 51-75 publicly traded issuers and refined its methodology to include whether companies that have set goals aligned with science have also set goals to transform their businesses over the next decade. The results indicated that:
Of the 25 member companies, 11 have objectives aligned with science, but only six meet the higher bar of establishing intermediate objectives for 2030.