Climate scientists have a clear message:
Our world must be at Net-Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
to keep global warming below two degrees.
Exceeding two degrees warming will cause irreversible damage to the planet.
But what do they mean by Net-Zero emissions?
Put simply, it means: Do our best, remove the rest!
Here's the full picture:
The world currently emits some 40 billion tonnes of CO2 per year.
In only 30 years from now the global emissions have to be at zero.
So first of all, we need to double down on our efforts to reduce emissions.
Do our best!
…it's too little to just change the lightbulbs to LED.
But certain emission sources are very hard to get rid of.
It looks like we'll still have unreduced emissions for decades to come.
So, if the world can't get to zero… is that the end of the story?
…is the two degrees target already out of reach?
No, because we can still achieve Net-Zero!
And Net-Zero means that any unreduced emissions are balanced by the same amount of negative emissions.
Remove the rest!
But how will that work?
To produce negative emissions, we need to take the CO2 we've emitted back out of the atmosphere and store it permanently.
This is called Carbon Dioxide Removal – CDR – or simply carbon removal.
There are natural and more technical approaches to remove carbon.
Growing a forest on previously woodless land, for example.
Or filtering CO2 directly from ambient air and storing it in rock formations deep underground.
Climate scientists expect it will take billions of tons of negative emissions to stay on the net-emissions path
– the path that can keep global warming below two degrees.
And that amount increases, the longer we wait to take serious action.
The problem is that carbon removal approaches aren't deployed at scale yet.
The carbon removal industry is just about to emerge.
So, how can companies and individuals help to get the world to Net-Zero?
Many of us want to take responsibility for our emissions.
We can do so by emitting as little as possible and compensating our unavoided emissions
Compensation is usually done by buying so-called carbon offsets for each ton we've emitted.
That way we pay others to avoid their emissions in our stead.
But with one tonne emitted by us and one tonne avoided elsewhere, one tonne is still emitted into the atmosphere.
So, this type of compensation is not enough to reach Net-Zero.
We need to go further than that and start compensating via carbon removal.
For each tonne we emit, another tonne must be removed and stored right away.
This makes our carbon footprint truly Net-Zero.
Compensating emissions via carbon removal is currently a lot more expensive than conventional carbon offsetting.
But actually, it's good that carbon removal comes at a price:
It puts a price on carbon.
And it gives us a good incentive to first reduce our emissions wherever possible before compensating them.
At Swiss Re, we understand risks.
And we're serious about making the world more resilient.
In 2019, Swiss Re committed to Net-Zero emissions from all our insurance offerings and investments by 2050.
For our own operations, we've committed to achieve Net-Zero emissions as early as 2030.
We move away from conventional carbon offsetting and start supporting carbon removal projects instead.
As a global reinsurer, we can play a vital role in championing the Net-Zero ambition.
– far beyond our own industry.
So together, let's do our best, remove the rest!