Achieving net-zero emissions is essential to limit global warming to 1.5°C and avoid its worst impacts. It requires deep and widespread cuts in carbon emissions and balancing them with removals.
To achieve this, countries, regions, cities, and businesses must align their near-term policy commitments with a long-term net-zero target. These targets are outlined in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
Renewable energy
Energy from renewable sources will be crucial in reaching net-zero emissions, whether as electricity or as a way to make fuels that can replace more carbon-intensive fossil fuels. Renewables are a clean and affordable energy source that can benefit communities worldwide. They can help reduce climate damage and provide jobs while delivering reliable energy services.
Many countries have already set ambitious targets for increasing their renewable energy use. Improving renewables by making them more efficient and reducing costs is essential to reach these goals. Renewables also need to be more widely available in low-income and middle-income countries.
Lastly, researchers must find ways to make nature-based carbon sinks (emissions taken out of the atmosphere) more reliable to achieve net zero. This requires a better understanding of their reliability under current and future climate conditions and an evaluation of their broader social and ecological impacts.
You must also understand how to achieve net zero emissions, which will require a deep and wide cut in human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and large-scale removals of GHGs from the atmosphere, as well as maintaining or increasing the efficiency of existing technology and infrastructure.
Energy efficiency
Boosting energy efficiency is the cheapest and lowest-impact way to cut carbon pollution on a massive scale. For example, making all new buildings ultra-efficient could cut 550 million metric tons of emissions yearly.
To reach net-zero emissions, countries must set long-term targets and reduce their emissions by at least 90%. They must also neutralize residual emissions by removing them from the atmosphere through natural approaches like restoring forests or carbon capture and storage technologies.
Achieving net zero will require deep and widespread cuts in all sectors that produce greenhouse gases, including power, industry, mobility, buildings, forestry and other land use, agriculture, and waste. It will also require a shift to a circular economy and increased deployment of low-carbon technology, including renewables, energy efficiency, and carbon capture and storage. The best path to getting there will be through consistent and ambitious policies. These will include setting net-zero targets, ensuring they are fully integrated into domestic plans, and addressing emissions throughout the value chain, including requiring suppliers to carry out their carbon footprints.
Electricity
The latest climate science is precise: global greenhouse gas emissions must drop by nearly half by 2030 and reach net zero to avoid the worst climate impacts. To achieve this, cutting human-caused emissions in all sectors and offsetting the rest with carbon removal will be necessary.
Achieving net zero will require massive improvements in energy efficiency and shifting to lower-carbon sources of electricity. Electrification of vehicles, heating, and industrial processes could cut emissions significantly. Switching from gasoline to electric equipment could also cut nitrous oxides and fluorinated gases.
Achieving net zero will also require significant new renewable capacity, particularly wind and solar. Many countries and regions committed to achieving net zero in their jurisdictions or businesses. But, to make net zero possible, these targets must be scaled to the global level and cover all GHGs. This will ensure that progress toward climate targets for CO2 and other greenhouse gases is made consistently, quickly, and accurately. The more comprehensive approach to net zero will also increase the urgency for countries to reduce their emissions.
Transportation
The world needs to accelerate efforts to improve transportation, as the sector is responsible for most global emissions. The electrifying vehicle is a crucial strategy, but there is also an opportunity to reduce vehicle miles traveled through smarter urban planning and investing in more efficient public transit systems.
Non-CO2 greenhouse gases (such as methane and nitrous oxides) are equally crucial for global warming, so they must be reduced with equal urgency. This will require a combination of mitigation measures, such as fuel efficiency improvements and carbon removal from the atmosphere using natural approaches like reforestation or engineered solutions such as direct air capture and storage.
For a country’s national climate plans, it is essential to have both short-term targets and a long-term vision to achieve net zero by 2050. These plans should align and ensure that all GHG reduction efforts will achieve the ambition to limit global temperature rise. They should also clearly communicate their approach to balancing residual emissions with GHG removal.
Buildings
Around 40% of global CO2 emissions come from buildings due to operational energy use (heating, ventilation, IT).
Improving buildings is an essential part of a net zero approach. This requires reducing the demand for energy and ensuring that new buildings are designed with low-carbon materials and construction. It also means ensuring that existing buildings are improved through retrofits and that building materials are reused, recycled, or disposed of in low-carbon ways.
Companies should report their operational and embodied carbon annually and disclose these to their customers and investors.