What Is Carbon Neutrality and How Can Individuals and Groups Achieve It?

There’s a lot of talk about carbon these days. Regulators talk about taxes on carbon while the business sector talks about carbon markets and carbon offsets. What does it all mean, and what’s the definition of carbon neutrality? Let’s get to the bottom of this important terminology and demystify what makes it different from similar terms like “net-zero” and “climate-positive.”

What Is the Definition of Carbon Neutrality?

The European Parliament recognizes carbon neutrality at every level of society as a vital component in achieving net-zero emissions. Carbon neutrality, therefore, involves achieving a balance between activities that emit carbon – like those in the built environment used by humans – and structures and processes that absorb, store, and/or process it.

Carbon neutrality is important for many reasons, one of the most vital being: Science hasn’t discovered or fashioned a “natural” carbon sink that can address the effects of climate change already in progress. Natural carbon sinks are natural features like forests, oceans, and healthy soil. These elements of the natural world remove 9.5–11.0 Gt (gigatonnes) of CO₂ (carbon dioxide) from the atmosphere per year. Current emissions, however, were 36 Gt in 2020.

Therefore: If we cannot make immediate changes to our lifestyles on a significant scale – like driving cars in substantially smaller numbers and greatly reducing our meat intake – then zeroing out the climate impact of existing human activities must become a high priority across the globe. Achieving net-zero will require substantial efforts to counterbalance the collective emissions generated by human activities, but it’s possible through carbon neutrality.

How Is Carbon Neutrality Different From Net-Zero and Climate-Positive?

Carbon neutrality is a process undertaken toward the ultimate goal of achieving net-zero status. Some individuals use the term “net-zero” to refer to an organization that emitted no emissions from the start and therefore has nothing to offset. This usage may vary, however.

Individuals and organizations can go a step further than carbon neutral – balancing out their entire carbon footprint – by becoming climate-positive. This means they’re not just erasing their own carbon footprint, but actually offsetting more carbon than they emitted in the first place.

How Does This Apply to Earth’s Natural Carbon Cycle?

Earth has a natural carbon cycle. Human beings and their built environment – structures, machines, vehicles, electronics, supply-chain activities, etc. – have thrown this natural cycle into disarray.

So what’s a carbon cycle?

Simply put, Earth’s carbon cycle is the process the planet uses to recycle and reuse carbon atoms. Carbon is one of the most plentiful elements on Earth, but – as mentioned – it doesn’t take much to displace it and arrest its natural movement through the natural environment.

What does that movement look like? According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), carbon atoms travel from Earth’s atmosphere into the various lifeforms inhabiting the planet, then get emitted back into the environment. Living organisms sequester a considerable amount of carbon at any given time; oceans and bodies of water hold some of it; plants – like the trees in forests – process a substantial portion of what remains.

Much of the problematic carbon observed by scientists as an aggravator of climate change is the direct result of human beings upsetting this balanced, cyclical process of recycling and rejuvenation. Living organisms aren’t the only ones harboring carbon; deceased lifeforms do as well – including those whose mortal remains became fossil fuels. Burning this material as a power source releases enormous amounts of carbon that would otherwise be “dormant” and stored away from the atmosphere.

How Can Individuals and Groups Achieve Carbon Neutrality?

You’re probably wondering at this point: What can I do about these unnatural changes to Earth’s carbon cycle? How can individuals achieve carbon neutrality? Can companies and organizations – and local and national governments – follow suit?

All that we’ve described here is achievable, but ordinary people need to make the case to elected officials and CEOs, and then the latter must lead by positive example.

So how can individuals and groups achieve carbon neutrality? Here are some ways.

1. Get Certified

There is a growing number of certification organizations cropping up that can give companies a chance to pursue carbon neutrality, along with verifiable proof for doing so. One is the CarbonNeutral Protocol, which gives companies a framework to audit and then address sources of carbon emissions throughout the organization. Single product lines or whole companies can use this approach.

2. Purchase Carbon Offsets

Individuals and organizations can zero out their carbon footprints by buying carbon offsets. These take the form of investments in clean-energy projects and other endeavors that reduce global carbon emissions, such as replanting lost forests. The European Union has a mature carbon-trading system that makes this process easy.

3. Incentivize Green-Focused Investments

Like it or not, the fate of humanity now rests on our ability to – as one group of published researchers put it – “mobilize finance.” Nothing happens without the bankers’ say-so, so it’s time to make sure they’re feeling properly motivated and mobilized to address this crisis.

Mobilizing finance to address climate change and carbon emissions means incentivizing forward-thinking, climate-friendly investments and disincentivizing shortsighted ones. Businesses must receive proper motivation to understand the risks their investments face as a result of climate change. Risky financial endeavors made in the face of the climate crisis will only cost society – and the average citizen – more dearly in the future.

4. Think of Entire Product Lifecycles

The carbon footprint traceable to human manufacturing and distribution processes is absolutely gargantuan – more than a quarter of all emissions in the United States.

Think of the waste sent to landfills each year and how much of it was thrown away before its time. Companies increasingly have a responsibility to plan for the entire lifecycle of their products, their packaging, and any associated waste. Reusable packaging is required as a matter of course in some countries.

Long-lived products are also essential; companies must build products that last, and consumers must vote with their wallets for better-made goods that don’t break down before their time and then call forth new resources – and manufacturing emissions – to fabricate replacements.

5. Switch to Renewable Energy

Achieving carbon neutrality won’t be possible without a concerted effort to switch to renewable energy all over the globe.

In a study of carbon emissions from renewable energy sources – like solar, wind, and geothermal – compared to fossil fuels, renewable installations emitted 50g of CO₂ over their lifetimes. Natural gas emitted 475g of CO₂ per kilowatt-hour; coal emitted 1,000 g of CO₂ per kilowatt-hour over its lifetime.

There’s no mistaking the urgency nor the effectiveness of switching to renewable energy when it comes to curbing humanity’s addiction to carbon and other greenhouse gases.

Carbon Neutrality Is a Global Moral Imperative

The time is now for individuals and organizations to pull together in this common cause. Climate change isn’t a hoax – and the planet’s livability for future generations hangs on our willingness to face and act on that fact. Thankfully, we all have the tools we need to make a change, whether we speak for many or just for ourselves.