Delivering net zero

Abstract

The 2021 Glasgow Climate Pact rightly expressed “alarm and utmost concern” at the impacts of climate change that are already being felt around the world, following repeated instances of death and destruction brought by extreme heat, floods and wildfires.1 It explicitly recognised that further impacts will be much lower at a 1.5C temperature increase than at 2C, and it stated that this means almost halving global carbon dioxide emissions this decade and reaching net zero around mid-century.

More needs to be done to close the considerable gap between the ambition to limit climate change and the promised emission reductions. Pledges made by countries in Glasgow on issues such as deforestation, electric vehicles and methane need to be translated into real policy and action, accountability mechanisms need to be strengthened, and international climate finance needs to be bolstered. Nevertheless, a clear commitment to a global net-zero future has been made by global governments, mirrored throughout much of the private sector, and the principal challenge now is one of delivery on an accelerated timeframe.

With the alarm bell still ringing from Glasgow, the single most important thing is that pledges are translated into accelerated whole-economy action so that this vision and the ambition of net zero rapidly become a global reality.