Net Zero commitments, as they stand now, continue to perpetuate false solutions and do not cut emissions at the source. By supporting Real Zero approaches, governments, businesses, and financial institutions can achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and keep global warming below the 1.5C guardrail.

Baku, Azerbaijan— With demands on governments to take bold action to advance climate finance and reduce emissions at the source, the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) is releasing a policy analysis on the growing concerns of Net Zero pledges and promises by governments, businesses and financial institutions during the UNFCCC COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Examining the connections between Net Zero and false solutions, The Need for Real Zero Not Net Zero: Shifting from False Solutions to Real Solutions and a Just Transition demonstrates how Net Zero pledges can perpetuate ineffective or unproven technological fixes and market-based schemes. Net Zero also can have a negative impact on communities and countries most vulnerable to the climate crisis. The policy analysis details the need for a Real Zero approach to climate solutions, which provides a framework to effectively reduce emissions and mitigate pollution at the source while not relying on industrial scale technology, market-based mechanisms, and CCS to prevent further global warming.

The authors discuss the need for the transition to Real Zero solutions:

“As governments, financial institutions, and corporations widely promote and endorse Net Zero as the central solution to the climate crisis, a growing body of research shows that Net Zero, as it’s being currently applied, is a false solution…Although reenvisioning the approach to Net Zero and global emissions reductions is a massive undertaking that will require reorienting the current economic system, it is essential to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement and upholding human rights. Real Zero solutions are viable alternatives to extractive, harmful, and ineffective practices. While acknowledging the serious political constraints, this reimagining is what is needed and what ecological and social realities demand.”

Examples of Real Zero applications and practices include a just and rapid phaseout of fossil fuels, a fair and democratic renewable energy transition, a shift to agroecology and small-scale farmers, Indigenous and community-led reforestation and forest protection, an end to all fossil fuel subsidies, policies that halt fossil fuel expansion, and prioritization of women's leadership.

Access the report at the link below:

https://www.wecaninternational.org/net-zero-real-zero

During COP29, WECAN will be coordinating several events, and policy interventions on root causes and false solutions, just transition, and women-led solutions and systemic change. Learn more here: https://www.wecaninternational.org/cop29