Carbon neutrality goals: key gaps

By themselves, these companies are not much different from countries that also have goals for 2050 or 2060, but the plans for their achievement are still very superficial. The difference is that countries with such goals now account for 80% of the population and 91% of the world’s GNP.

Net Zero Tracker, a non-profit organization Created in 2018 With a mission to follow through on these written promises his last report, published this week, interest in such goals has increased over the past three years: from national governments to businesses and municipalities, there are at least 10,000 economic or political actors equipped with such goals. With this explosion came the interest in obtaining tools to objectively evaluate efforts.

However, at the moment, less than 20% of government entities (a category that includes countries as well as provinces or regional governments) meet the criteria for ‘starting out’, the minimum required to be able to confirm that they are at least on the right track. Being “on track” can mean, for example, a target date for achieving carbon neutrality, along with quantitative greenhouse gas reduction targets by sector – and enough transparency so that those involved can assess whether progress has been made. For now, it states that “there is a worrying lack of credibility” behind many of these efforts.

Ironically, a third of large companies have such goals, compared to a fifth at the end of 2020, which is a huge step forward in such a short time. But the lack of credibility of the stated efforts suggests that regulations “will ultimately be necessary to ensure that short-term goals are set as well as standards [quant aux procédures à suivre] that are being generalized to the global economy.

One considers, for example, the obligation to include greenhouse gas emissions in the financial statements or in production costs, or the obligation to be transparent about the means established – or not – to achieve greenhouse gas reduction targets. Currently, “our analysis clearly shows significant flaws in practices for implementing carbon neutrality goals, across all entities.”