A possible but challenging imperative, climate neutrality has to transition from concept to reality now.
Why offsetting isnt enough
On paper, the journey to net-zero appears simple.
We need to halve emissions by 2030, and then halve them again… and then again.
This equates to a 7% year-on-year reduction.
Diana Fox Carney agrees.
It can never be just enough.
Decarbonising needs to go as far as manually removing residual emissions.
Because once we can successfully eliminate dispersed carbon dioxide from the air, things like long-haul aviation become viable.
Offsetting will definitely play a role in reaching net-zero, but climate neutrality cannot be bought.
Companies today should not claim that their product is in any way climate-neutral until it actually is.
From design to end-of-life.
But they are not perfect.
Every product today goes to market with an environmental debt, and Polestar cars are no exception.
At Polestar, were not trying to hide the amount of work still to be done.
Nor are we busy smashing self-defined benchmarks.
We want our consumers and employees to know what theyre buying into.
But even here we see leadership absolving themselves of responsibility.
TheTortoise Responsibility 100 Indexcompares the FTSE 100 companies to each other based on social and environmental policies.
Johan Falk says make an estimate of your emissions, set targets, and get moving.
Everyone needs to overhaul their value chains and re-engineer business models.
Those that do it sooner will succeed.
This is our opportunity to drive the electric revolution with transparency as a keyword.
Car for car, this aligns with the current 1.5C ambition.
But there is still lots to be done to meet the next deadline.
Internally, employees need to create a speak-up culture and be unafraid to question non-transparency.
While the road to climate-neutrality might not be clearly mapped, we have to resign to navigating en route.
The race to net-zero has begun, and its one we cannot afford to lose.
