How should companies credibly contribute to decarbonisation

How should companies credibly contribute to decarbonisation Re Launching Gold Standard’s “Fairly Contributing to Net Zero" Webinar.

Gold Standard has released the second iteration of its pioneering climate framework designed to guide organisations in making substantial contributions to global climate efforts.Read the media release The updated version addresses new challenges and incorporates feedback to support businesses in navigating the complexities of climate strategy.

On 25 July 2024, Gold Standard experts discussed how companies can do the right thing for our planet.


DEFINITIONS
Moral Hazard – the risk that the action and/or claims of one entity negatively influences the ambition of another, for example to regulate or take action themselves.

Net zero - a 1.5 degree scenario by 2050 wherein anthropogenic emissions are balanced with anthropogenic removals.

Paris agreement/Paris aligned – signed in 2025, Paris is the agreement between countries to halt emissions to 1.5 or well under 2 degrees of warming.

Carbon Market – trade of carbon credits representing 1tCO2e additional, permanent emission reduction, avoidance or removal for a range of potential uses.

Commodity certificates – certificates representing the social and environmental attributes of a unit of purchased commodity, such as steel or wheat.

Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions – the categorizations for different emissions sources from your business operations.

Value chain abatement – the act of reducing the emissions caused by your business, its up and down stream suppliers and the energy it sources.

Unabated emissions – the emissions you have not yet reduced, caused by your business operations.

Residual emissions – the emissions you cannot ever get rid of (SBTi suggests for most companies this is as low as 10%).

Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM) – a method for intaking responsibility for your unabated emissions by investing in things that will either contribute to global net zero targets, outside of your value chain or things that are needed to support mitigation but don’t actually cause it (e.g. R&D).

Compensation approach – mitigating a tonne of emissions somewhere in the world as a way of compensating for a tonne caused by your business.

Contribution approach – still financing mitigation but the claim is contributing to global net zero, rather than commenting on a companies performance thereby making it more accurate.

Claims – the communications people, organisations, brands and products make about their environmental performance.
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