You can’t offset your way to net-zero but you can fund the best in climate action while you get there
Summary
The SBTi report that; “Decarbonizing a company’s value chain in line with science and reaching net-zero emissions by mid-century, is increasingly becoming the minimum societal expectation on companies.”
Even under optimistic projections, there’s an enormous gap between where we’re headed in 2030 and where we need to be (as reported by the UN Environment Program, 2021). Based on current commitments, emissions are on track to reach 56 Gt CO2e by 2030, over twice what they should be.
To protect and restore our planet, we need to come together, to fund collective climate action and begin to tackle climate change today.
The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Management Hierarchy
It’s important to understand that you can’t simply offset your way to net-zero; the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), thought leaders on net-zero, requires businesses to reduce their emissions (preventing them from being generated and released into the atmosphere) generated from their operations, by up to 90%, depending on their industry.
According to the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Management Hierarchy (the leading standard for managing GHG emissions, used by the IPCC, SBTi, IEMA, WWF and many more), companies should commit to reducing value chain emissions and implement strategies to achieve their targets as a first order priority, ahead of actions or investments to mitigate emissions outside their value chains. This is because negative emissions at large scale are not likely to be achievable before 2040 and near-term emissions reductions must be steep (roughly halving global emissions by 2030).
But we understand that it can take time to reach net-zero and businesses want to take action right now! That’s why we’ve given you the ability to fund the best in climate action to make a difference on your journey to net-zero.
Funding Climate Action
Whilst reducing our emissions is incredibly important and central to achieving net-zero; there is also a need to protect and restore our planet.
The SBTi report that “Decarbonising a company’s value chain in line with science and reaching net-zero emissions by mid-century, is increasingly becoming the minimum societal expectation on companies.”
While corporate decarbonisation will play a critical role in reaching societal net-zero, the SBTi highlight two reasons why targets alone, may be insufficient:
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A significant amount of emissions occur beyond the reach of corporate supply chains.
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Net-Zero emissions are whats needed from all companies to achieve this 1.5˚C goal. While companies on the net-zero journey represent a significant and growing share of the economy, the majority of companies do not have emissions reductions targets that are aligned with net-zero (SBTi, 2020).
We need to do more to repair and protect the planet and this is Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM).
“Beyond value chain mitigation” refers to climate mitigation, action or investments that are undertaken as part of the net-zero journey. This includes activities that avoid or reduce greenhouse gas emissions and those that remove and store greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. According to the SBTi examples include purchasing high-quality carbon credits, reforestation or investing in research and development of climate technologies. BVCM can be considered the funding of reputable climate action on the way to net-zero.
Even under optimistic projections, there’s an enormous gap between where we’re headed in 2030 and where we need to be (as reported by the UN Environment Program, 2021). Based on current commitments, emissions are on track to reach 56 Gt CO2e by 2030, over twice what they should be.
To fill this gap, it is essential for governments to strengthen their climate action, as well as implement policies, plans and laws to enable the achievement of net-zero targets. There is also a significant opportunity to address this gap by investing in activities that lie beyond supply chains, such as investing in forest conservation to eliminate deforestation by 2030, scaling up forest restoration and investing in carbon removal technologies or other climate-related tech.
For example, the global capacity of long-duration energy storage, which supports the use of renewable energy, must increase by a factor of 400 by 2040 to help the power sector achieve net zero by that year
By mobilising additional beyond value chain mitigation, companies like yours can help to protect and repair our planet and take responsibility for the impact that we have.