What does it mean to become carbon neutral?
Businesses often speak about becoming carbon neutral. This means they’re taking steps to remove the equivalent amount of CO2 to what’s emitted through activities across their supply chains, by investing in ‘carbon sinks’ that absorb CO2.
Carbon neutrality is an approach for climate change mitigation in which carbon dioxide emissions (or all greenhouse gas emissions) are balanced by absorbing carbon via carbon sinks or by removals.
What is net zero?
Net zero refers to the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) – such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane or sulphur dioxide – that are removed from the atmosphere being equal to those emitted by human activity.
What’s the difference between carbon neutral and net zero?
Net zero is similar in principle to carbon neutrality, but is expanded in scale. To achieve net zero means to go beyond the removal of just carbon emissions. Net zero refers to all greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere, such as methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and other hydrofluorocarbons.
As with carbon neutrality, to reach net zero the greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere must be equivalent to the greenhouse gases being removed from the atmosphere.
What is Carbon offsetting?
Another way to reduce emissions and to pursue carbon neutrality is to offset emissions made in one sector by reducing them somewhere else.
Carbon offsetting is the practice of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere equivalent to the emissions generated by other activities.
How carbon offsetting can be done?
Carbon offsetting can be done through investment in renewable energy, energy efficiency or other clean, low-carbon technologies.
This is often done by paying “projects that either emit fewer emissions at source, such as cleaner energy production, or remove them from the atmosphere, such as forestry schemes.
Carbon sinks, such as forests or our oceans, absorb and store more carbon from the atmosphere than they emit. Investment into their health is called ‘offsetting’ and allows companies to operate in good conscience, knowing their emissions are balanced out.
Many companies begin this process by cutting down their CO2 emissions as much as possible first, before investing in highly-visible offset programmes.
However, it’s not just businesses that can strive for carbon neutrality – we can all make contributions as individuals. Making more sustainable lifestyle choices can help reduce each of our carbon footprints and limit our overall environmental impact. This could mean using public transport over a personal vehicle, limiting food waste, recycling packaging and old clothes, and monitoring the carbon intensity of your home’s power usage.
What are the examples of carbon offsetting systems?
The EU’s emissions trading system (ETS) is an example of a carbon offsetting system.
Another example of an initiative to reduce emissions is the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism, which would apply carbon prices on imported goods from less climate ambitious countries. This should help discourage companies moving production from the EU to somewhere with less stringent greenhouse gas emissions rules.
What is a carbon sink?
Carbon sink is any system that absorbs more carbon than it emits. The main natural carbon sinks are soil, forests and oceans.
According to estimates, natural sinks remove between 9.5 and 11 gigatonne of CO2 per year. Annual global CO2 emissions reached 37.8 gigatonne in 2021.
