The number of companies that have set net-zero climate goals—meaning that they’ll cut their CO2 emissions as much as possible, and any they still emit will be offset by projects that capture carbon—has more than tripled over roughly the last year. Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, says that it plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Unilever, another consumer product giant with hundreds of brands,计划到2039年到达那里。Duke Energy, the North Carolina-based electric utility with a long history of using coal, plans to reach net zero by 2050. Even石油公司例如BP现在说他们的目标是同一件事。其他，包括亚马逊和微软，计划更快地达到目标。
Climate scientists say that society as a whole needs to reach net zero by the middle of the century, at the latest, to avoid the worst impacts from climate change. That means that businesses, along with governments, have to do the same. But when companies set net-zero goals, some plans are more credible than others.
“并非每个零目标都是相同的，”数据驱动的Envirolabat Yale-NUS College and one of the authors of a最近的报告with NewClimate Institute examining net-zero pledges in detail. “Part of the problem is that there isn’t a unified single definition of what net zero actually means. And there are many different opinions about what thatshould也是刻薄的。”
A company might set a net-zero target, but then not actually cut emissions as much as it feasibly can or as much as is needed for society to stay on track for climate goals. A recent report from the Sierra Club gives Duke Energy an “F” grade for its net-zero strategy: The report faults the company for not yet having plans to retire the majority of its current coal plants, and for planning to build new gas plants rather than shifting fully to clean energy. The report says that this is “entirely incompatible with limiting warming to 1.5°C,” a threshold for avoiding the worst impacts from climate change.
So what makes net-zero goals truly ambitious—and when are they the latest version of greenwashing?
Do they have more than just a 2050 goal?
“我认为，公司可以做的最重要的事情是，除了长期的零净承诺外，他们还可以承诺实现中期目标或目标。”非营利组织谷神星。“这确保他们现在实际上正在采取行动，以开始将它们的轨迹纳入净零。”
许多必须发生的大规模过渡需要时间，并且如果没有明确的临时目标，则有风险，公司将无法迅速进行更改。随着公司领导的变化，该公司可能后来说，不再有可能实现零净目标。（公司已经错过了主要的环境目标，例如承诺到2020年结束森林砍伐，由于DataDriven Envirob和New Climate Institute的最新报告，目前只有几乎没有公众的反击。）现在，只有8％的零目标公司具有临时目标。
全世界还需要减少排放，以避免在2050年之前早在全球变暖的1.5度以上。2018年联合国报告警告说，到2030年，全世界将需要将排放量大约减少到2030年。说得通。但是，由于某些行业的移动速度比其他行业更快，因此他们需要更积极的目标，以确保社会整体能够实现其目标。
零目标的公司中只有8％的公司具有临时目标。
Solar and wind power, for example, is already so affordable that electric utilities should be aiming for cuts of at least 80% by the end of the decade, says John Romankiewicz, a senior analyst for the Beyond Coal Campaign at the Sierra Club. “We’re looking at a sector that has the technology on hand to do a really steep cut,” he says. “That will also enable other sectors like buildings and transportation to take off and have a clean electricity supply.” That’s why the organization gave Duke Energy a failing grade, even though Duke is aiming to reduce its emissions by 50% by 2030.
For other companies that can feasibly reach net zero sooner than 2050, it makes sense to act much more quickly. Microsoft, for example, plans to become “carbon negative” (a step beyond net zero, meaning that it removes more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits) by 2030.”We know that to get to the ultimate outcome we want, which is a net-zero carbon economy, that there is all a lot of work that needs to happen,” says Lucas Joppa, chief environmental officer at Microsoft. “And Microsoft strongly believes that if there’s a lot of work you need to do you better get started now.”
该公司正在努力消除其直接控制的所有排放；它正在转移到100％可再生能源，包括目前在柴油上运行的数据中心的备份发电机，并为其公司机队转向电动汽车。由于其产品仍然负责无法直接控制的其他排放，包括客户房屋中使用的电力，因此该公司还将依靠碳量。
What do they mean when they say “net zero”?
随着公司设定排放目标，他们不要总是使用相同的语言。有些人，例如微软，谈论变得“碳负面”。有些人使用“气候阳性”或“净阴性排放”的意思是同一件事 - 与公司负责发射相比，从气氛中占用更多的二氧化碳。有人说他们的目标是“净零”，而另一些人则使用“碳中性”一词来表明业务中剩余的任何排放都将被去除碳（例如植树的碳植物）的项目所抵消。一家与公司合作衡量其碳足迹，减少排放和抵消剩余排放的非营利组织使用“气候中立有些人更喜欢，因为它是指所有温室气体，而不仅仅是二氧化碳。一些组织使用“零碳”或“无碳”作为净零的代名词。
我认为您必须查看从供应链到最终用户的整个情况，如果我们想作为一个社会实现这一目标。”
短语的混合可能会使消费者感到困惑，但更大的挑战是公司如何衡量其足迹的差异。当一些公司说他们的目标是净零时，他们只是在谈论直接来自自己运营的排放。例如，一些石油公司的目标是在石油和天然气井中获得零净值，但不包括实际燃烧燃料的客户的大量排放量。（例如，BP，不计算大多数这些下游排放在目标中。）其他人正在设定更广泛的目标，例如苹果plans to reach net-zero emissions across its entire supply chain by 2030。超出公司控制的排放，包括其供应商和客户所负责的排放，称为“范围3”排放。
If companies don’t look at the full impact of their products and services—including these so-called “Scope 3” emissions—the world won’t stay on track to actually address climate change. “I think you have to look at the whole picture, from supply chain to end-state user, if we want to achieve this goal as a society,” says Andrew Poreda, a research analyst at Sage Advisory, an investment management firm. “I think that’s essential. If we saw 90% of companies make a pledge and then the 10% didn’t include Scope 3, like in the oil and gas sector and utilities, we would still be experiencing global warming, and then ultimately, the whole net-zero goal is not achieved.”
他们是否会尽快切割排放？
企业最大的挑战是如何急剧削减排放。通常，一个早期的一步是切换到可再生电力，但即使可以以不同的方式进行，甚至比其他方式更有效。例如，Google是可再生能源的早期企业买家，但随后转向资助新风和太阳能项目的建设，而不仅仅是为现有工厂支付电力。由于设施是新的，因此这是确保公司实际上有助于减少整体排放的一种方法。
现在，它正在努力确保其所有操作都通过当地电网的可再生能源运行。(Companies often just purchase renewable energy from other locations, buying enough to match their own energy use. If a solar or wind farm is on another grid, it’s a little misleading to say that the company is running on renewable power.) By 2030, it plans to run the entire business on carbon-free energy 24-7, a more challenging goal, since wind and solar power aren’t available continuously and need to be paired with energy-storage infrastructure that isn’t yet fully in place. The company is shrinking the emissions from everything under its control, from company shuttles to Nest thermostats, and then, like Microsoft, using carefully vetted offsets for the rest. In September 2020, it announced that it had used offsets to eliminate its operational carbon footprint for the公司的整个历史。
对于某些公司而言，缩小排放量比其他公司要难。对于一家主要取决于用电的碳足迹的科技公司，转移到可再生能源会产生巨大影响。其他人的排放更难消除，例如水泥行业总体排放的温室气体比大多数国家多;排放既来自燃烧燃料，也来自制造水泥的化学过程。但是，即使对于水泥之类的东西，解决方案也可能很快就可以使用。新技术使运行重型工业流程成为可能renewable energy for the first time。水泥厂的污染可能是被捕获并隔离在水泥本身中。对于每个公司，净额零的规划都涉及了解哪些技术和系统解决方案可用，未来可行的是什么以及如果无法消除排放，他们的业务模型应如何改变。例如，一些化石燃料公司现在正在完全远离化石燃料。
HSU认为，随着公司投资新技术来减少未来的排放，他们也应该非常清楚现在可能发生的事情。她说：“我认为从科学的角度来看，我们想看到的是，公司对自己可以实际做的事情和真正透明的事情保持现实。”“So they can really only reduce their emissions by 50% by 2025, or 2030, to me, that’s a much more credible target than if a company says we’re going to go net zero by 2050, and they have no way of actually achieving that goal. Then it becomes an exercise in greenwashing or offsetting and questionable offsets.”
他们正在使用什么偏移？
当公司无法消除一些排放时，他们会转向碳补偿来解释它们 - 支持造林等项目，或在垃圾填埋场捕获甲烷污染，或者在农业上进行更改以捕获土壤中更多的碳。但是，偏移措施挑战是正确的。HSU说：“许多公司都设定了零净目标，而没有对其运营进行实质性更改，并抵消了其碳足迹，而无需讨论偏移的来自哪里以及如何验证其质量。”
例如，种植树木的偏移程序可能很难追踪，并且有可能以后可能会丢失树木或森林火灾的风险。她说，由于偏移很便宜，有些公司也可能没有动机去做尽可能减少排放的工作 - 继续污染可能更容易付费。她说：“我们已经看到很多公司出现了，他们说，我们只会将排放量减少50％，然后我们将抵消其余的。”“这有很大的风险，因为它可能是一种绿色的形式。”
许多公司已经设定了零净目标，而没有对其运营进行重大更改。”
微软正试图解决当前偏移市场中的一些问题。借助捕获碳的自然方法，包括可以在土壤中存储更多碳的农业造林或农业变化，一个问题是如何测量森林或农场吸收多少额外的碳。乔帕说：“测量实际上非常困难。”“我们仍然需要成熟我们测量和验证实际发生的碳固换的能力。”出售抵消的公司还需要考虑诸如森林大火之类的风险，并提供保险单，例如种植额外的树木。
胡说，例如，如果它们是高质量的项目，则可以在短期内使用诸如植树之类的项目，这意味着它们会经过仔细的跟踪，并通过种植额外的树木作为保险来应对诸如森林大火之类的挑战。但是从长远来看，我们需要转向更多样化的项目，以消除碳，例如将二氧化碳从空中拉出的“直接空气捕获”机器。When United Airlines recently announced that it would到2050年，减少其温室气体排放100％，这是选择不使用传统碳偏移的一种点。取而代之的是，该公司正在投资直接捕获，这是必要的。首席执行官斯科特·柯比（Scott Kirby）当时说：“现实情况是，自工业时代开始以来，传统的碳偏移计划根本无法抵消每年的碳排放量增加的4000次。”“从数学上来说，找到足够多的土地来种植4000倍的树木是不可能的。”但是，捕获碳涉及的技术仍然需要扩大规模并降低成本，以使其成为一种完全有效的抵消策略。如果他们不这样做，指望它们的公司将不得不重新考虑实现目标的途径。
该过程有多透明？
When companies don’t have clear plans for reaching net zero, their goals lack credibility. The bank HSBC recently announced that it would reduce “financed emissions”—that is, the emissions from the companies they invest in—in line with the Paris Agreement, but it didn’t say how it planned to phase out its funding for石油，天然气和煤炭项目。激进分子嘲笑公告，说“就像说您会在2050年之前戒烟，但每周继续购买一包，甚至吸烟更多。”
HSU说，很少有Net-Zero承诺的公司分享了他们计划的细节。Her team is currently working with CDP, a nonprofit that asks companies questions each year to disclose climate risk, to add new questions that delve into the details of net-zero goals—from what policies a company has in place to whether they’re including customer or supplier emissions in their calculations. “All these questions are really important to understanding how credible that zero target is,” she says. “And the fact of the matter is that we don’t really have that information.”
随着公司共享信息，他们也可以帮助其他人更快地移动。例如，微软在2020年与耐克，星巴克和其他几家公司合作，成立了一个新组织Transform to Net Zero，帮助建造其他人达到零净目标的道路图。乔帕说：“如果我们到2030年实现了碳阴性目标，而我们不会帮助其他人这样做，那对我们来说不是胜利。”“这对社会来说不是胜利。”
更正: By 2030, Google will use all carbon-free energy, rather than all renewable energy (which leaves it open for sources other than renewables).