Wednesday, March 31 is the International Energy Agency – COP26 Net Zero summit. The summit is billed to be a gathering of energy industry and world leaders committed to net zero emissions and is being co-hosted by the COP26 President Delegate.
The concept the summit is centered around — net zero emissions — has come under intense scrutiny as governments and corporations have paraded out net zero plans and commitments that are light on detail, long on timeline and rely on unproven or non-existent technologies. The plans often rely on “offsets” which have been found to have questionable climate benefits and risk driving human rights abuses, especially in the Global South.
In case you were planning on covering the summit, I wanted to be sure to equip you with some of the latest research on net zero:
- Not Zero: How Net-zero targets disguise climate inaction
- Chasing Carbon Unicorns: the deception of carbon markets and “net -zero”
- Corporate greenwashing: “net zero” and “nature-based solutions” are a deadly
- fraud
Please see the statement below on the summit from Rachel Rose Jackson, director of climate research and policy at Corporate Accountability:
“This summit is just the latest attempt by the governments and corporations most responsible for driving the climate crisis to greenwash their images while doing next to nothing to truly cut emissions. The only proven way to cut emissions is to cut emissions and it’s dangerous, harmful and irresponsible for these world leaders and the IEA to pretend otherwise. COP26 is one of the last opportunities we have to get this right and we cannot afford another talk-shop about fantastical schemes that only mask their delay, deceit, and denial. It’s high time governments follow the science, not corporate lobbyists and PR consultants, and do their fair share to cut emissions now. It’s the only proven way to address the climate crisis.”
