Climate Change: What Is Net Zero?
Tharushi Fernando
April 20, 2022
In the recent COP26 climate change summit held in Glasgow, committed countries worldwide agreed to set goals for “net zero” by the beginning of 2050. What is net zero?
The term “net zero” means totally eliminating the amount of greenhouse gas production either by eliminating raw products that produce greenhouse gases or balancing out any gas released to the atmosphere.
Greenhouse gases consist of CO2, CO and etc which are released when we burn oil, gas and coal for energy, transport and to run services related to our daily living. To achieve “net zero” is challenging and does not mean total elimination of the use of greenhouse gases but learning to compensate for the release of these deadly gases. One easiest way to do this is planting trees, trees are a main source that absorb CO2 from the environment. Other technical way is carbon capture and storage, this involved using machinery to remove carbon from the air then solidifying and burying the carbon underground.
Achieving net zero will not be easy but it is a challenge we all must achieve to in order to provide an sustainable environment to our future generations.
FAQs