Mencius said, "When poor, one should cultivate one's own virtue; when prosperous, one should help the whole world." The Earth Overshoot Day in 2019 fell on July 29, meaning we had already exhausted the resources that the Earth could provide for the entire year by August. From an environmental and resource perspective, we are all "poor." In this context, our first priority should be to "cultivate our own virtue," achieving carbon neutrality for ourselves without burdening the Earth or others. When we have the capability, we can invest more in and produce renewable energy to supply those in need, embodying the spirit of "helping the whole world."

In 2006, the New Oxford American Dictionary named "Carbon Neutral" as its Word of the Year. Carbon neutrality refers to first calculating the total amount of CO2 emissions and then offsetting these emissions through activities like tree planting or purchasing carbon credits, with the aim of achieving a low-carbon and environmentally friendly outcome.

Recently, more governments and companies have committed to achieving carbon neutrality. To help stakeholders fully understand carbon neutrality, this article will analyze its purpose, targets, methods, challenges, future trends, and case studies.

1. The Purpose and Significance of Carbon Neutrality

In the global effort to combat climate change and achieve the goal of limiting global warming to 2°C or even 1.5°C, carbon neutrality has become a key measure for countries, governments, businesses, event organizers, and individuals to address climate change and mitigate global warming.

2. Targets of Carbon Neutrality

The Paris Climate Conference set an important global goal: achieving global carbon neutrality by 2050. Many countries and regions have made national commitments to carbon neutrality in recent years, and leading companies have pledged to achieve corporate carbon neutrality no later than the global 2050 target. Carbon neutrality is a common goal that requires the efforts and contributions of countries, regions, businesses, event organizers, and individuals worldwide.

Global Carbon Neutrality: The landmark 2015 Paris Climate Conference left behind an important legacy: achieving global carbon neutrality by 2050. This means that global carbon emissions should be minimized, and any unavoidable emissions will be absorbed or offset through measures like tree planting.

National Carbon Neutrality: The UK announced its commitment to achieving national carbon neutrality by 2050 and has enacted legislation to support this goal. Nordic countries—Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland—recently signed a joint statement in Helsinki, committing to accelerate their efforts against climate change and achieve carbon neutrality faster than other countries. China aims to peak its carbon emissions before 2030 but still has a long way to go to reach carbon neutrality.

City Carbon Neutrality: Many cities abroad have made commitments to carbon neutrality and are working hard to achieve them. These cities, primarily located in Europe, especially in the Nordic region, demonstrate a trend where higher living standards provide more opportunities for environmental contributions.

Helsinki, known as the "Daughter of the Baltic Sea," is now celebrated as an "environmental capital." From its extensive public transportation network to its energy-efficient buildings, from its well-organized waste sorting and recycling to its combined heat and power (CHP) district heating, Helsinki leaves a green footprint everywhere. To accelerate its emission reduction efforts, Helsinki set a new goal in September 2017 to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035, 15 years ahead of its previous target.

Copenhagen plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025, producing more renewable energy than it consumes in fossil fuels. By 2025, Copenhagen aims to generate one unit of renewable energy for every unit of fossil fuel consumed. The city has invested heavily in wind turbines, with a significant portion of its electricity coming from wind power. It also has a new high-tech waste incineration plant that uses the heat from burning waste to provide heating for the city. Additionally, Copenhagen is known as a "bicycle city" with approximately 400 kilometers of dedicated bike lanes. Infrastructure development, including private sector participation, is crucial for achieving carbon neutrality. For example, Baidu Maps recently launched 19 urban greenways in Shenzhen to encourage cycling.

Oxford, as a world-renowned university town, not only leads in academic research but also sets a global example in low-carbon practices. Oxford proposed the UK's first "Zero Emission Zone" plan: by 2020, the city center will restrict gasoline and diesel vehicles. The plan also aims to reduce CO2 emissions from most polluted roads in Oxford by half by 2020. According to the city authorities' plan, by 2020, certain streets in the "Zero Emission Zone" will prohibit non-electric vehicles, taxis, light commercial vehicles, and buses. By 2030, all city center streets will ban these vehicles. Authorities will use automatic number plate recognition cameras to monitor and fine drivers who violate these restrictions. Starting in 2020, only electric vehicles will be allowed on certain city streets. This plan differs from London's, where polluting vehicles can still enter the city center if they pay a fee (I once incurred a £100 fine in London for failing to pay the congestion charge). My former boss, Craig Simmons, now the Mayor of Oxford, mentioned that his main policy is to make Oxford the UK's first carbon-neutral city.

At the Asia-Pacific Green Development Forum held in Changsha on October 16, I shared a panel with Professor Craig Banks from the University of Manchester, who mentioned that Manchester aims to achieve city carbon neutrality by 2038, 12 years ahead of the UK. As a traditionally industrialized city, Manchester is determined at all levels but faces significant challenges, needing to reduce fossil fuel consumption by at least 48%. To achieve this ambitious goal, Manchester has partnered with six countries/regions and two European partners, including municipal authorities, research institutions (like the University of Manchester) and companies (such as Siemens).

While no Chinese city has explicitly set a carbon neutrality target, China has been conducting pilot projects for low-carbon cities since 2011, with many cities aiming to create near-zero carbon demonstration zones. However, my overall impression (based on Carbonstop's involvement in some of these projects) is that while the projects are well-formulated, there are few truly outstanding and sustainable examples. Most projects are driven by government funding rather than genuine zero-carbon initiatives, and China's path to city carbon neutrality remains long.

Corporate Carbon Neutrality: Corporate carbon neutrality involves first calculating a company's carbon emissions (usually on an annual basis), identifying areas for reduction, implementing measures to reduce emissions from operations and supply chains, and offsetting unavoidable emissions (those that are economically or technically infeasible to reduce) through tree planting or purchasing carbon credits.

Recently, many companies, especially automakers, have responded to carbon neutrality goals. Volkswagen aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, Mercedes-Benz plans to stop selling internal combustion engine vehicles by 2022 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2039, Porsche has achieved carbon neutrality in the production of its electric sports car Taycan at the Zuffenhausen factory, and Audi has become the first German company to achieve carbon neutrality in domestic transportation. These automakers have already begun taking action toward their goals.

Internet companies are also actively pursuing carbon neutrality. Google has committed to using recycled materials in all Made by Google products by 2022 and achieving carbon neutrality for all its shipped products by 2020 to promote sustainability in its hardware division.

Apple's data centers are powered 100% by renewable energy, and 96% of Apple's global facilities run on solar, hydro, and wind power. Apple's operations in China have already achieved carbon neutrality. This is an area where other IT companies can learn from.

The main emissions from internet companies come from energy consumption in data centers. Innovative solutions include Microsoft submerging data centers underwater, Facebook building data centers near the Arctic Circle, Tencent digging caves in Guizhou to store servers, and Alibaba creating the most beautiful data center in Qiandao Lake, which integrates technology, nature, and the city using natural lake water cooling technology.

Event Carbon Neutrality: In China, many events and conferences have achieved carbon neutrality, including the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, the annual Green Company Conference, the APEC meeting in Beijing, the Hangzhou Marathon, the HP Supplier Conference, the China Merchants Group Green Living Conference, and the UN Climate Conference China Pavilion. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has recently issued the "Guidelines for Implementing Carbon Neutrality in Large Events (Trial)" to promote carbon neutrality at events.

   

(Main Green Conferences List)

(Hangzhou Marathon Carbon Neutrality)

Personal Carbon Neutrality: For each of us, carbon emissions are inevitably generated in our daily lives and work. Every aspect of our lives—clothing, food, housing, transportation, and consumption—leaves a carbon footprint. As responsible citizens, we need to minimize the environmental burden we create and achieve personal carbon neutrality through activities like tree planting.

Users can calculate their carbon footprint using a carbon footprint calculator and offset their emissions by purchasing carbon credits or carbon reduction units from foundations specializing in carbon neutrality or major carbon exchanges, thereby achieving carbon neutrality.

Achieving personal carbon neutrality depends on the improvement and construction of infrastructure. For example, Hainan Airlines and China Southern Airlines have experimented with allowing passengers to donate a certain amount when purchasing tickets to buy carbon credits for carbon neutrality. Abroad, some train stations offer passengers the option to choose carbon neutrality when buying tickets. We can look forward to 12306 or Ctrip eventually building such infrastructure to facilitate passenger self-carbon neutrality.

3. Methods for Achieving Carbon Neutrality

To achieve carbon neutrality, there are generally three main steps:

1. Calculate Carbon Emissions and Identify Reduction Opportunities

To reduce or offset carbon emissions, it is essential to first understand the extent of emissions, which provides the data foundation for subsequent reduction measures and offsets. Depending on the target of carbon neutrality (nation, region, city, company, event, household, or individual), the carbon emissions within the defined boundary (usually on an annual basis) should be calculated to determine the total emissions. Based on this data and economic and technical feasibility, identify areas where reductions can be made.

2. Implement Reduction Measures and Minimize Emissions

After understanding the carbon emissions, before proceeding with offsets, we should use existing technologies and management practices to reduce emissions as much as possible, bringing them down to the lowest feasible level given current economic and technical conditions. This includes using renewable energy (such as solar power), energy efficiency improvements (like LED retrofits), and administrative measures (such as optimizing video conferencing systems to reduce travel).

3. Offset Unavoidable Emissions and Achieve Carbon Neutrality

After making every effort to reduce emissions, there will still be some emissions that are unavoidable, at least within the current economic and technical context. In such cases, external means can be considered to achieve carbon neutrality, including tree planting, purchasing green carbon credits (carbon sinks include three categories: green carbon sink: forests absorbing CO2; blue carbon sink: oceans absorbing CO2; white carbon sink: calcium carbonate fixing CO2, but the carbon sinks humans can utilize or control are mainly green carbon sinks), or investing in renewable energy projects (producing additional renewable energy for society after achieving self-sufficiency, echoing the idea of "helping the whole world").

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4. Selection of Carbon Neutrality Projects

As mentioned earlier, there are many ways to achieve carbon neutrality, including purchasing green carbon credits, planting trees, investing in clean energy projects (wind, hydro, solar power), energy efficiency improvements, and innovative projects like carbon credit programs.

Choosing among these options can be challenging for those new to carbon neutrality. Here are some basic principles:

• Project Authenticity (traceability of information and data): Traditional renewable energy or energy efficiency projects may lack clear monitoring and sufficient additional emission reductions. When selecting carbon neutrality projects, opt for those with strong reliability and endorsement from authoritative institutions. Review project documents to understand the background and supporting data for the carbon reductions.
• Accessibility of the Project: Many emission reduction projects may be far from the public. If possible, choose projects closer to your country, city, organization, or personal life. Projects you can see firsthand or that have a direct connection will likely be more appealing than distant, unrelated ones.
• Impact of the Project: A key consideration in choosing carbon neutrality projects is their social impact. Generally, organizations pursue carbon neutrality for social benefits and corporate responsibility. If carbon neutrality can significantly enhance brand image, organizations are more willing to adopt it. For example, Beijing's "Drive One Day Less" campaign, which influenced about 100,000 users to reduce car usage, has strong social benefits and attracts organizations seeking carbon neutrality. Similar projects include Ant Forest and Guangdong's carbon credit program. Forestry carbon sink projects not only mitigate global warming but also beautify the environment and contribute to poverty alleviation, making them highly commendable carbon neutrality projects.

5. Misconceptions About Carbon Neutrality

As previously mentioned, carbon neutrality is a last resort. There are several misconceptions during its implementation.

Misconception 1: Not Reducing Emissions, Directly Neutralizing

Many organizations believe that carbon neutrality is a panacea. After knowing their carbon emissions, instead of actively seeking reduction opportunities, they immediately look for ways to neutralize emissions, thinking money can solve all problems. This is a significant misconception. We should first strive to reduce emissions as much as possible, only considering carbon neutrality if the marginal cost of further reductions is too high. Otherwise, all organizations might opt for direct carbon neutrality without pursuing internal reductions, leading to stagnation in emission reduction technology and over-reliance on external projects, which is counterproductive.

Misconception 2: Flaws in Emission Reduction Projects

Generally, carbon reduction and pollution reduction are closely related, but sometimes they can be contradictory. For instance, some hydropower projects provide clean energy but cause irreversible ecological damage. Therefore, when choosing carbon neutrality projects, select those with comprehensive benefits and no obvious drawbacks. Many organizations (such as a large international investment bank) were once enthusiastic about carbon neutrality but later abandoned it due to concerns about negative impacts associated with these projects.

Misconception 3: The Paradox of Green Electricity: Users Cannot Choose Their Power Source

Many organizations prefer green electricity in carbon neutrality projects because electricity is a major source of carbon emissions, and choosing green electricity seems like a direct solution. However, when selecting green electricity, one might assume that the electricity being used is green, but unfortunately, this is not the case. Currently, users cannot choose their power source, as electricity reform has not reached that point. We can only hope for the day when users can decide on their preferred power source.

Misconception 4: Insufficient Scientific Rigor in Calculating Carbon Reductions

As public awareness of low-carbon living increases, daily low-carbon scenarios have become more diverse, such as low-carbon travel and online payments. However, some companies publish their carbon reduction figures on websites or platforms, but these often lack scientific rigor, especially in the area of low-carbon travel. Users choosing to walk, cycle, or use public transport cannot be directly compared to driving (unless explicitly stated as a comparison to fuel-powered vehicles), as not everyone originally drove. While most of these projects are for promotional purposes, if they are to be used for carbon neutrality, the calculation methods must be improved for scientific accuracy.

6. Future Trends in Carbon Neutrality
For responsible governments, companies, and individuals, carbon neutrality is the minimum goal for fulfilling environmental responsibilities. "Cultivate oneself when poor." In the face of severe environmental resource shortages, the first step we can take is to achieve carbon neutrality for ourselves.