Taking Stock of Net Zero Commitments
Today’s news is that Maersk has quit the International Chamber of Shipping board questioning the extent of its green ambition, while last week the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping published new analysis showing that only 35% of the world’s major shipping companies have either made 2050 net zero commitments or joined the IMO target of a 50% absolute reduction compared to 2008.
It also suggested that shipping compared unfavourably with other industries such as automotive, oil & gas, and transport & leisure when it came to net zero commitments and ambition, citing a rate of 65%, 56% and 45% respectively for net zero targets in those industries.
As reported by Splash 24/7, the Zero Carbon Shipping centre CEO Bo Cerup-Simonsen gave this warning: “Transparency is key for the transition, and there is no doubt that shipowners and operators will increasingly need to be transparent about climate targets and actions – not only towards regulators but also to live up to expectations from customers, investors, insurance, the greater public – and not least employees.”
There is no question that this sentiment is correct, but there is increasing evidence that setting a net zero target is no guarantee that an organisation has an adequate plan to achieve it.
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There is increasing evidence that setting a net zero target is no guarantee that an organisation has an adequate plan to achieve it.
The 2022 Net Zero Stocktake report comes from the Net Zero Tracker (twitter @NetZeroTracker) which is a collaboration between The Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, The Data-Driven EnviroLab (DDL), NewClimate Institute, and Oxford Net Zero. It aims to increase transparency and accountability of net zero targets pledged by nations, states and regions, cities and companies. It collects data on the targets set and their integrity, showing how serious the organisation is about meaningfully cutting its net emissions to zero.
According to the Net Zero Tracker collaboration the 2022 Net Zero Stocktake analysis shows that, “…overall the transparency and integrity of existing net zero pledges are far from sufficient to ensure a timely transition to global net zero GHG emissions to achieve the Paris Agreement’s long-term temperature goal. Across the board, an enormous need for greater standardisation and operationalisation of net zero targets is needed.”
We’ve picked a couple of key stats out of the report in the video below, but you can download the report free of charge by visiting https://zerotracker.net/analysis/net-zero-stocktake-2022
