The climate crisis demands immediate action
While transitioning to net-zero emissions is crucial, carbon offsetting enables companies to take responsibility for their unavoidable emissions today. By investing in high-quality offset projects, businesses provide critical funding for initiatives that reduce and remove greenhouse gases globally. This support accelerates climate action and helps bridge the gap while companies work towards their net-zero goals. The Net Zero Standard recognizes the urgency of the situation and strongly encourages organizations to incorporate offsetting as a key component of their climate action strategy.
Reaching net-zero emissions requires a global effort and substantial financial investment. Governments alone cannot address the scale of the climate crisis. Carbon offsetting provides a critical mechanism for companies to contribute their fair share and close the funding gap. By supporting projects that reduce deforestation, invest in renewable energy, and develop innovative carbon removal technologies, businesses directly contribute to tangible climate solutions.
The Net Zero Standard recognises the crucial role of offsetting in accelerating global emission reductions. While achieving net-zero emissions remains the ultimate goal, offsetting provides a powerful way for companies to take immediate action and demonstrate climate leadership.
The time for action is now, and offsetting is a vital tool for companies to demonstrate leadership and contribute to a sustainable future.
Introducing "+ Neutral"
The “+ Neutral” mark is for companies that are not just on the path to Net Zero, but also offsetting their residual emissions to be carbon neutral, whilst on the Net Zero journey.
- Taking immediate responsibility for unavoidable emissions
- Supporting global net zero efforts
- Providing additional climate change leadership
FAQs
While both “net zero” and “carbon neutral” aim to address greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, there are key distinctions between the two terms:
- Carbon Neutral: Carbon neutrality typically focuses on balancing out emissions with an equivalent amount of carbon offsets. This means that an organisation could still potentially continue to emit GHGs at the same level, whilst they invest in projects that remove or reduce an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.
- Net Zero: Net zero goes beyond carbon neutrality by requiring deep decarbonization across all GHG emissions (Scope 1, 2, and 3). It emphasizes significant emission reductions as the primary approach, with offsets used only for residual emissions that cannot be eliminated through other means. This makes net zero a more ambitious and comprehensive goal.
While the Net Zero Standard prioritizes deep emission reductions, it recognises the valuable role that offsetting can play in supporting global climate action during the transition to net zero. Here’s why:
- Financing Climate Solutions: Purchasing high-quality carbon offsets can provide crucial financing for projects that reduce or remove GHG emissions, such as renewable energy development, forest conservation, and carbon capture technologies. This helps accelerate the deployment of climate solutions globally.
- Addressing Unavoidable Emissions: In many cases, it may not be technically or economically feasible to eliminate all emissions in the near term. Offsetting provides a mechanism to address these residual emissions while companies work towards deeper decarbonization.
- Supporting Innovation: Investing in offsets can support the development and scaling of innovative climate solutions that are not yet commercially viable.
- Driving Collective Action: Offsetting can encourage collaboration and engagement with value chain partners and communities to address emissions beyond an organization’s direct control.
The Net Zero Standard encourages the use of high-quality offsets that meet stringent criteria for:
- Additionality: The project must lead to genuine emission reductions or removals that would not have occurred otherwise.
- Permanence: The emission reductions or removals must be long-lasting or permanent.
- Measurability: The emissions reductions or removals must be able to be measured and quantified
- Leakage: The project must not cause emissions to increase elsewhere (e.g., by displacing deforestation to another area).
To achieve Net Zero companies are required to achieve significant emission reductions across all scopes before utilizing offsets to neutralize residual emissions. Emissions need to be reduced by at least 90% from the baseline measurements. Carbon Removal type carbon offset projects can be used to balance out the remaining emissions.
For companies looking to go beyond the basic Net Zero requirements, they can also offset their emissions whilst working towards to Net Zero to be carbon neutral. Here either carbon reduction or carbon removal type carbon offset projects can be used as long as they meet the requirements outline in the Net Zero Standard Requirements Document.
