Carbon Neutrality means having a balance between emitting GHGs and avoiding/absorbing GHGs from the atmosphere in carbon sinks. Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and then storing it is known as carbon sequestration. In order to achieve net zero emissions, worldwide greenhouse gas emissions will have to be counterbalanced by carbon sequestration.
Carbon sink is any system that absorbs more carbon than it emits. The main natural carbon sinks are soil, forests and oceans. According to estimates, natural sinks remove between 9.5 and 11 Gt of CO2 per year. Annual global CO2 emissions reached 37.1 Gt in 2017. Till date, no artificial carbon sinks are able to remove carbon from the atmosphere on the necessary scale to fight global warming.
The carbon stored in natural sinks such as forests is released into the atmosphere through forest fires, changes in land use or logging. This is why it is essential to reduce carbon emissions in order to become carbon neutral.
Steps to go carbon neutral
- Define: Set your carbon neutrality and carbon management strategies
- Measure: Calculate & track your carbon footprint
- Reduce: Implementing cost effective carbon reduction programmes to offset emissions through a wide choice of high quality projects around the world
- Communicate: Demonstrate your climate action and engage your employees, customers and shareholders.
One of the most used jargon in the management world is: –
“What gets MEASURED, gets MANAGED”
The same principle does applies to managing your Carbon Footprint. First step towards managing your carbon footprint is measuring your Carbon Footprint.
Carbon footprint or GHG Inventory is the total amount of Green House Gases (GHGs) released into the atmosphere due to a particular anthropogenic (human) activity normalized according using the Green House Warming potential values of the GHGs.
Standards Available for GHG Inventory analysis:
- – The Greenhouse Gas Protocol by WBCSD and WRI
- – ISO 14064- 1, 2, 3 : 2019
To help delineate direct and indirect emission sources, improve transparency, and provide utility for different types of organizations and different types of climate policies and business goals, three scopes:
- – Scope 1 – Direct GHG Emissions
- – Scope 2 – Electricity indirect GHG emissions
- – Scope 3 – Other indirect GHG emissions
Steps to GHG Inventory analysis
- – Understanding Business Goals and Inventory Design
- – Setting Organizational Boundary
- – Setting Operational Boundary
- – Tracking Emissions over time
- – Identifying and calculating GHG emissions
- – Managing Inventory Quality
- – Accounting for GHG Reductions
- – Reporting GHG Emissions
- – Setting a GHG reduction target