09/23/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/23/2024 08:50
As the climate crisis accelerates, the Net Zero Stocktake 2024 identifies a commitment gap across cities, states and regions, which is holding back the necessary economy-wide transition.
The Net Zero Tracker's annual assessment of the intent and integrity of global climate commitments, shows only a modest increase in net zero targets set by subnational governments (states and regions, and cities) in the past year.
Thomas Hale, Professor of Public Policy at Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government, who co-led the report, said:
'Net zero leaders may now be grappling with the hard work of implementation, but they are in a far better place than those who, remarkably, have yet to position themselves for a successful transition. Major companies that have yet to set a net zero target are a time bomb for their employees and investors and a mounting financial risk for the economy overall-as well as the planet we all live on.'
Dr Steve Smith, Executive Director at Oxford Net Zero, said:
'It's two years since the UN Secretary General launched a report into net zero pledges, saying "we must have zero tolerance for net-zero greenwashing." And yet our findings show barely any improvements. Fewer than 5% of all the pledges by cities, regions and companies meet all our criteria for integrity. That number has risen by just 1% since last year. But there are a few bright spots of leadership around the world. Ambitious and honest action is possible. We point to examples in our report, with the hope that there will be many more in the near future.'
The initial phases of the net zero journey largely centred on setting national targets and on aligning companies with the Paris Agreement; today net zero targets are mainstream at the country-level and are a corporate norm.
Some bright spots of progress can be seen in the subnational governments of 14 major-emitting nations. For example:
However, the report calls for all cities, states and regions to translate their wide-ranging authority to establish and enforce policies and regulations into clear net zero plans.
The Stocktake finds an increasing number of robust non-state (regions, cities and company) net zero targets and implementation plans, but with persistent gaps - and slow progress in net zero target integrity across all non-state entity types over the last two years.
The quality of the net zero commitments, measured against accepted integrity criteria, is only met by up to 5%, 4% and 3% of companies, cities and regions, respectively. However, the absolute number of companies that met all criteria increased by 62% compared with eighteen months ago.
The world's largest alliance of 14,500 non-state and subnational entities, the Race to Zero campaign, led by the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, was found to be a driver of net zero target-setting integrity.
Strikingly, more than 40% (1,700 / 3,870) of major non-state and subnational governments and companies are operating without any kind of emissions reduction target.