According to Wuppertal Institute report, an increasing number of actors, including cities and corporations, have set themselves carbon neutrality goals, and adopted measures to implement them.
While individual countries’ efforts are insufficient to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of climate neutrality by the second half of the century, voluntary carbon neutrality goals could be a way to demonstrate climate leadership.
October 2017: The Wuppertal Institute has published a policy brief outlining the efforts of countries, cities and corporations to achieve climate neutrality goals. Titled ‘Steps Towards Carbon Neutrality: An Overview of Strategies and the Role of Offsetting,’ the brief shows that an increasing number of non-state actors have set themselves carbon neutrality goals, which could provide a significant source of demand for international carbon credits.
In the Paris Agreement on climate change, the governments of the world agree to achieve climate neutrality in the second half of this century. Reaffirming the goal of limiting the global temperature increase to below 2°C above preindustrial levels, and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5°C, Parties agreed to “achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases.”
According to the report, voluntary carbon neutrality goals are an effective way to demonstrate climate leadership by increasing demand for international carbon credits.
Issued as part of the JIKO project, which supports decision making for the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), the report provides an overview of the commitments towards that end of Costa Rica, Norway and Sweden, as well as the city of Melbourne, Australia, and Microsoft. Despite ambitious neutrality goals and measures to implement them, none of the actors will be able to achieve climate neutrality on their own in the short run. According to the report, remaining emissions will need to be compensated by carbon credits either from domestic offset schemes, like the one found in Costa Rica, or from international schemes such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
The publication concludes that voluntary carbon neutrality goals are an effective way to demonstrate climate leadership by increasing demand for international carbon credits. [Steps Towards Carbon Neutrality: An Overview of Strategies and the Role of Offsetting] [Publication Landing Page] [JIKO Webpage]