Business is responsible for a huge proportion – over 70% – of global greenhouse gas emissions. When individual businesses commit to reducing their emissions, it goes a long way to enabling the global goal of achieving net zero by 2050.
Science-based emissions reduction targets are intended to enable organisations to follow a clearly defined path to voluntarily reduce their emissions. Targets are considered science based when they are sufficient to limit global warming to well below 2° C – ideally 1.5° C, which is what’s required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
For many businesses though, the temptation is to focus on offsetting emissions, rather than actually implementing meaningful emissions cuts. Claiming net-zero compliance by buying offsets is increasingly frowned upon, but, without standards in place, it can be difficult to differentiate between different net-zero statements.
Rapid, deep emissions cuts are the most effective, science-based way to limit global temperature rise. This should be the overarching priority for companies across their entire value chains, including purchased energy and end users.
We continually look for new ways to cut emissions from our business activities and are currently undertaking an exercise to measure and validate our CO2 footprint with the aim of offsetting our residual emissions through a credible scheme.
