What is net zero?

Laura

You might have heard the term used before but what does net zero really mean?

Imagine a set of scales. On one side you put on everything which release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere - like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and f-gases. And on the other side you put everything which takes greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and locks them into the Earth.

On the first side you might have carbon dioxide emissions from petrol cars, the energy used to heat our homes, or livestock which “release” methane…lovely! All things emitting or pushing out, greenhouse gases into the atmosphere like this are known as ‘sources’.

On the second side, put all of the things which take greenhouse gases out of our atmosphere. These are known as ‘Sinks’. And include things like healthy forests and oceans which absorb carbon dioxide.

When you put all of these things onto your scale, and it balances perfectly then that is net zero. Just like a maths equation, all of the carbon emitting activities will increase the number, and the carbon removing activities will decrease the number.

Net zero is about getting the scales to balance. Which sounds great right? But how do we do that?

At the moment in the UK and across the world the scales are not balanced. We are releasing too many greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, and there aren’t enough things taking greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere to balance the scales.

Which means we need to reduce emissions in order to achieve net zero.

Most of the world’s greenhouse gases come from a few countries. Some of these countries trade or ‘buy’ the carbon allowances of other countries with lower emissions.

This helps countries with high emissions to achieve net zero, but it doesn’t reduce overall global emissions. In the UK the current goal is to balance our emissions to zero by the year 2050.

The good news is there ARE ways to do this…but it won’t be easy and it will mean some pretty big changes for everyone.

Governments have the biggest role to play by changing policies and practices such as switching to greener energies like wind, tidal and solar power.

On a day-to-day basis all of our individual choices can help to make a difference. Things like; using public transport instead of driving, insulating our houses and reducing the amount of stuff that we buy, will all help to reduce production and in turn reduce greenhouse gas emissions bringing us closer to net zero.