Principles for making a net zero commitment

1 – PLEDGE 

Pledge at the head-of-organization level to reach net zero in the 2040s or sooner, or by midcentury at the latest, in line with global efforts to limit warming to 1.5C. 

Act immediately. 

Your pledge should cover all Kyoto Protocol gases, and all activities and scopes, including Scope 3. 

2 – PLAN

In advance of COP26, explain what steps will be taken toward achieving net zero, especially in the short- to medium-term. 

Set interim targets to achieve in the next decade, which reflect a fair share of the 50% global reduction in CO2 by 2030 identified in the IPCC report on global warming of 1.5C.

Equity is important: The scope and timing of each institution’s net zero journey will differ according to capacoty, current carbon footprint, and other factors. 

Plan for future uncertainties, particualrly around changes in technology and the impact of the actions of others, whether consumers, government, regulators or businesses.

3 – PROCEED

Take immediate action toward achieving net zero, consistent with delivering interim targets.

If you plan to offset, use robust standards to make sure their benefit is real and lasting. Committers should avoid non-additionality and aim for permanence and verifiability. 

Clearly specify offsetting approach, whether it is grounded in avoided emissions, reductions, or removals. 

4 – PUBLISH

Commit to report progress at least annually, including via platforms that feed into the UNFCC Global Climate Action Portal as much as possible. 

Maintain transparency with clear and regular reporting against your plan.

1 – COMMIT TO NET-ZERO EMISSIONS

Net global emissions of carbon dioxide must reach zero to stabilise global temperatures, whether at +2°C, +3°C or any other level. All industries must eventually reach net-zero emissions, even if some industries do so before others.

Companies should commit to a date (or a temperature increase, such as 1.5°C or “well below 2°C”) before which the net CO2 emissions associated with their activities (including both supply chains and products sold) will be zero.

Companies should develop and publish a net zero transition plan. If the company envisages a substantial role for offsetting of residual emissions, what is the offset mechanism, is it reliable and available at sufficient scale for a global transition, and who is going to pay for it? The company’s public statements and support for other organisations and lobby groups should be consistent with advancing public, political and corporate action towards net zero emissions.

2 – DEVELOP A PROFITABLE NET-ZERO BUSINESS MODEL

Company executives should have business plans that ensure the profitability of their business, and limit supply chain risks, once emissions reach net zero.

For companies that provide a carbon-intensive service or fuel for which there is no currently available substitute, a clear plan is required for contributing to the development and deployment of substitutes or remediation measures.

For products and services for which zero-carbon substitutes already exist, a company should have a clear strategy and timescale for adopting them. If carbon dioxide removal plays a substantial role in the company’s plans, how will it be achieved, paid for, monitored and maintained in perpetuity?

3 – use QUANTITATIVE MEDIUM-TERM TARGETS

Mid-term targets (for example, for 2030) that are directly relevant to achieving a net-zero business model, such as the rate and long-term trajectory of reductions in CO2 emissions, are vital to assess compatibility with the Paris Agreement. If a company has a plan for a progressive transition to net-zero emissions, investors should be able to monitor their progress to ensure it is consistent with minimising risks to future climate and risks to future asset owners, consumers and taxpayers.

Global temperatures are projected by the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report to reach around 1.2°C above preindustrial by about 2030. By this level of warming, emissions scenarios approximately consistent with the 1.5°C goal will have seen global CO2 emissions reduce by at least 40% relative to business as usual, or at least 20% below business as usual for the 2°C goal. These rates of emissions reductions can act as useful benchmarks against which company progress can be measured.

1 – Cut emissions, use high quality offsets, and regularly revise offsetting strategy as best practice evolves

A host of carbon offsetting best practices have been developed over the past decades. Adherents to these principles must first observe these best practices, which can be grouped as: 

Prioritise reducing your own emissions. Minimise the need for offsets in the first place.

Ensure environmental integrity. Use offsets that are verifiable and correctly accounted for and have a low risk of non-additionality, reversal, and creating negative unintended consequences for people and the environment.

Maintain transparency. Disclose current emissions, accounting practices, targets to reach net zero, and the type of offsets you employ.

2 – Shift offsetting towards carbon removal 

Most offsets available today are emission reductions, which are necessary but not sufficient to achieve net zero in the long run. Carbon removals scrub carbon directly from the atmosphere.

Users of offsets should increase the portion of their offsets that come from carbon removals, rather than from emission reductions, ultimately reaching 100% carbon removals by midcentury to ensure compatibility with the Paris Agreement goals. Creating demand for carbon removal offsets today will send the necessary market signal to increase supply.

3 – Shift offsetting towards long-lived storage

The transition from emission reductions to carbon removals as outlined in Principle 2 above is critical for achieving net zero, but doesn’t address the question of how carbon is stored. Shortlived storage involves methods that have a higher risk of being reversed over decades. Longlived storage refers to methods of storing carbon that have a low risk of reversal over centuries to millennia, such as storing CO2 in geological reservoirs or mineralising carbon into stable forms.

Short-lived storage offsets help buy time to reduce emissions and invest in long-lived The Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting storage, but they are not a long-term solution for achieving balance between sinks and sources. It is therefore critical that investment in scaling and improving the technologies that enable long-lived storage begins now. Creating demand for long-lived offsets today sends a signal to the market to grow the supply of such offsets.

4 – Support the development of net zero aligned offsetting

The market for the high-quality offsets needed to meet Principles 2 and 3 is immature and in need of early-adopters to support its evolution. Users of these principles can develop the market for net zero aligned offsetting by:

Using long-term agreements. Give the certainty required by offset project developers to create net zero offsets.

Forming sector-specific alliances. Work collaboratively with peers to develop the market for net zero aligned offsets.

Supporting the restoration and protection of a wide range of natural and semi-natural ecosystems in their own right. Not only will this secure the ecosystem goods and services on which humans depend, including resilience to the impacts of climate change, but will contribute to carbon storage over the long term. While carbon offsetting can help to fund some of this work, such efforts should fundamentally be supported for the benefits and values they create, not purely for the purpose of carbon offsetting.

Adopting and publicising these Principles, and incorporating them into regulation and standard-setting for approaches to offsetting and net zero.