‘NET ZERO’ Carbon Targets

‘NET ZERO’ Carbon Targets

Subject: Environment

Context: NGO Oxfam has said that ‘net zero’ carbon targets that many countries have announced may be a “dangerous distraction” from the priority of cutting carbon emissions.

What the report says?

• “Land-hungry ‘net zero’ schemes could force an 80 per cent rise in global food prices and more hunger while allowing rich nations and corporates to continue “dirty business-as-usual,” Oxfam has said in a new report titled “Tightening the Net”.
• The report says that if the challenge of change is tackled only by way of planting more trees, then about 1.6 billion hectares of new forests would be required to remove the world’s excess carbon emissions by the year 2050.
• Further, it says that to limit global warming below 1.5°C and to prevent irreversible damage from climate change, the world needs to collectively be on track and should aim to cut emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 from 2010 levels, “with the sharpest being made by the biggest emitters.”
• “Oxfam’s report shows that if the entire energy sector whose emissions continue to soar, were to set similar ‘net-zero’ targets, it would require an area of land nearly the size of the Amazon rainforest, equivalent to a third of all farmland worldwide.

What does net-zero mean?

• Net-zero, which is also referred to as carbon-neutrality, does not mean that a country would bring down its emissions to zero.
• Gross-zero means reaching a state where there are no emissions at all.
• Therefore, net-zero is a state in which a country’s emissions are compensated by absorption and removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
• One way by which carbon can be absorbed is by creating carbon sinks.
• Bhutan is the first carbon-negative country in the world.
• Bhutan and Suriname are the only two countries that have achieved carbon neutrality and are actually carbon negative (removing more carbon than they emit).

Which countries have recently announced net-zero targets?

• New Zealand: passed the Zero Carbon Act 2019, which committed the country to zero carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner, as part of the country’s attempts to meet its Paris climate accord commitments.
• UK: UK’s parliament passed legislation in 2019 requiring the government to reduce the UK’s net emissions of greenhouse gases by 100 per cent relative to 1990 levels by the year 2050.
• US president Joe Biden announced that the country will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.
• The European Union plan, called “Fit for 55”, the European Commission has asked all of its 27 member countries to cut emissions by 55 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030.
• China also announced that it would become net-zero by the year 2060 and that it would not allow its emissions to peak beyond what they are in 2030. China accounts for an estimated 25% of global emissions.

Why does India object to net-zero emissions?

• India is the one opposing this target because it is likely to be the most impacted by it.
• Over the next two to three decades, India’s emissions are likely to grow at the fastest pace in the world, as it presses for higher growth to pull hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
• No amount of afforestation or reforestation would be able to compensate for the increased emissions.
• The net-zero goals do not figure in the 2015 Paris Agreement, the new global architecture to fight climate change.
• India has been arguing that instead of opening up a parallel discussion on net-zero targets outside of the Paris Agreement framework, countries must focus on delivering on what they have already promised in Paris Agreement.