Climate change and moving towards corporate carbon neutrality

Climate change

Alexandre Florentin

Manager at Carbone 4

The ultimate goal of any company’s climate policy is achieving carbon neutrality. This ambitious aim strictly follows the scientific recommendations laid out in the Paris Agreement, which set the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees and making the world carbon neutral by 2050.

The Net Zero Initiative, a coalition of stakeholders from the private sector, which was launched by the consulting firm Carbone 4 in 2018, aims to standardise carbon neutrality for businesses by providing a rigorous, credible and harmonised framework. The Net Zero Initiative does not see carbon neutrality as something that can be achieved overnight; rather, it is considered to be something that has to be managed as part of a transformational journey travelled over a number of years. Any company that has committed to neutrality should take a three-pronged approach to fight against climate change, which corresponds to the three indicators that monitor their climate performance:

• Reducing emissions throughout their business. Progress for this is monitored through “Induced emissions”.
• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions beyond their business. Actions are taken into account through “Avoided emissions”.
• Developing additional carbon sinks that store and sequester CO₂ emissions. These contributions are monitored through “Negative emissions”.

More about Carbone 4

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This new system of carbon accounting — with three distinct accounts that cannot be merged — should be available to all to all companies, regardless of their sector or size. It offers the transparency needed to give a company’s climate action credibility.