Green Capitalism Won't Work

 

Attempts are being made to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Net zero means any emissions that can't be stemmed by clean technology in 2050 will either be buried using carbon capture and storage or soaked up by plants and soils. Reaching net zero will also mean phasing out the internal combustion engine and dramatically increasing renewable energy technologies, such as wind and solar while decreasing fossil fuel pollution. Currently, more than 120 countries, including those in the EU, the US, China and Japan, have pledged to reach net zero by mid-century. A swathe of corporate net zero climate commitments has been made by a range of companies and investors, including British Airways, Unilever, Citigroup and BlackRock.

But Oxfam claims net zero targets are often a "greenwashing exercise".  It says governments and companies are "hiding behind unreliable, unproven and unrealistic carbon removal schemes" in order to hit targets.

Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of charity's UK branch, said companies and governments are using the "smokescreen" of net zero to continue "dirty, business-as-usual activities".

"A prime example of the doublethink we are seeing in the oil and gas sector trying to justify its ongoing extraction of fossil fuels by promising unrealistic carbon removal schemes that require ludicrous amounts of land," he told the BBC.

Nafkote Dabi, climate policy lead at Oxfam and co-author of the report, told the BBC that there are only 350 million hectares of land that can be used globally for afforestation and carbon removal without compromising food security. Oxfam calculated that the total amount of land required for planned carbon removal could be five times the size of India or the equivalent of all the farmland in the world.

 The Oxfam analysis the net zero targets of four of the largest oil and gas producers: Shell, BP, Total Energies and ENI found that their net zero plans alone could require an area of land twice the size of the UK.

"It's really worrying that only four companies could use so much of the remaining land available for the world," Ms Dabi explained. "If all energy sectors follow the same plan, they would require 500 million hectares of land, which means worsening existing hunger issues in the global south."

A recent analysis by the Transition Pathway Initiative, in partnership with the London School of Economics, found that none of the major oil companies' net zero targets currently align with a 1.5C future. A number of large oil and gas firms, such as Sinopec, ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco, have not yet made a net zero pledge.

In 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that if governments and companies that if governments and companies rely on reforestation only, by 2050, food prices could increase by 80% globally.

To meet the Paris targets, the world collectively needs to be on course to have cut carbon emissions by almost half by 2030, with the sharpest cuts being made by the biggest emitters, according to the UN. On current plans, the UN estimates that we are on track to have reduced emissions by 1% compared to 2010 levels.

Net zero targets 'unrealistic' says Oxfam report - BBC News