At the UN climate talks in Paris in 2015, the world’s governments were debating global climate targets. Unable to agree on firm dates for specific reductions, they ended up with the following compromise: that the amount of carbon emitted globally by society should be ‘balanced out’ by the amount absorbed by nature (and maybe some technology) by the second half of the century. This is where the concept of ‘net zero by 2050’ came from – it was never intended as a final target, but as a milestone on the path to zero emissions. Also, crucially, it wasn’t a target proposed by climate scientists but a political compromise to try to keep all of the world’s governments on board.

 

While ‘net zero’ does mean something on a global scale, it makes significantly less sense as a target for individual organisations (unless they own or manage large amounts of land). To reach that global net zero milestone, we need everyone who’s emitting greenhouse gases to rapidly reduce them, and everyone with responsibility for lands and oceans to help defend and expand the natural carbon stores provided by the living planet. It makes far more sense for each organisation to focus on the bits of the global balance sheet (emissions or absorptions) where they have the most influence or responsibility, rather than spending money on making these things appear to ‘cancel out’ within their own operations – especially when the main tool available for this is offsetting.

 

Despite this, many countries and organisations have now set ‘net zero by 2050’ targets. Much of this has no doubt happened in good faith; however, it’s hard to ignore that this particular target is not only decades away, but also allows for the use of offsetting or the promise of (unproven) future ‘carbon capture’ technologies, making it attractive for governments and businesses wishing to avoid real emissions cuts today.

 

Three years after the Paris Agreement, a 2018 UN climate report laid down a clearer and more important target for holding global heating at 1.5 degrees: global emissions reductions of 45% from 2010 levels by 2030 (which equates to 50% reductions from 2019 levels by 2030). This is the minimum target that GCC asks all its members to sign up to - while encouraging them to all go further and faster than this, and providing guidance on how to achieve 70% reductions by the same date. This should increase the chances of avoiding the worst climate impacts, and help ensure that arts organisations in the countries most responsible for historic emissions (aka the Global North) are doing their fair share.

 

Danny Chivers, Sustainability Advisor to GCC