Race to Zero
How Companies Can Lead the Way to Climate Neutrality
1st Edition
Published on 17. April 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-3-593-52065-0 (ISBN)
Description
Actionable Strategies for Businesses to Achieve Climate Neutrality
Climate change is not just an environmental issue. It is a fundamental business risk that demands urgent action from companies of all sizes and industries. While reducing greenhouse gas emissions is essential, reaching full CO2 neutrality remains a significant challenge. Traditional carbon offsetting alone will not be enough to drive meaningful impact.
To stay ahead, business leaders must go beyond mitigation and actively contribute to removing carbon from the atmosphere. Marian Krüger and Benedict Probst highlight the most effective carbon removal strategies and share practical insights on how companies can integrate these solutions today - regardless of where they stand in their sustainability journey.
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Persons
Author
Marian Krüger ist Gründer und Geschäftsführer von remove, einer Non-Profit-Organisation zur Unterstützung von Carbon-Removal-Start-ups. Zuvor leitete der studierte Verhaltensökonom das Sustainability in Business Lab an der ETH Zürich, beriet Industrieunternehmen und öffentliche Institutionen zur Dekarbonisierung und gründete ein erfolgreiches Solar-Start-up.
Marian Krüger is the founder and director of remove, an organization that supports European, Indian, and African carbon removal start-ups. Previously, the behavioral economist headed the Sustainability in Business Lab at ETH Zurich, advised industrial companies and public institutions on decarbonization and founded a successful solar start-up.
ISNI:
ISNI:
Dr. Benedict Probst ist Forschungsgruppenleiter am Max-Planck-Institut für Innovation und Wettbewerb und Fellow der Cambridge University. Zuvor arbeitete der studierte Umweltökonom in der Group for Sustainability and Technology an der ETH Zürich. Seine Artikel erschienen unter anderem in der Süddeutschen Zeitung und in führenden Fachjournalen wie Nature Sustainability.
Dr. Benedict Probst leads the Net Zero Lab at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition and is a Fellow of Cambridge University. Previously, the environmental economist worked in the Group for Sustainability and Technology at ETH Zurich. His research has appeared in leading journals such as Nature Sustainability and various media outlets.
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Content
PREFACE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
I THE RACE TO NET ZERO
1 THE PATH TO NET ZERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
The World of Tomorrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Net Zero? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
What Makes an Ambitious Climate Target? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
The Race to Zero with SBTi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
SBTi is Not Perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Why Some U.S. Companies
Are Still Struggling with SBTi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2 THE CARBON CREDIT JUNGLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
How the Voluntary Carbon Market Came to Be . . . . . . . . . 40
How Carbon Crediting Projects Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
What Is Going Wrong in the Voluntary Carbon Market? . 45
Different Types of Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Carbon Credits for Net Zero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
To Achieve Net Zero, We Need Carbon Removal . . . . . . . . 52
The Way Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
II CARBON REMOVAL
3 OVERVIEW OF THE MOST IMPORTANT
CARBON REMOVAL METHODS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
One World, Two Cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4 LETTING NATURE DO THE HEAVY LIFTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Afforestation/Reforestation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Regenerative Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Peatlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Biomass Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Blue Carbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5 LENDING NATURE A HELPING HAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Enhanced Weathering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Biochar Carbon Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
6 ENGINEERED SOLUTIONS FROM BIOENERGY TO CO2
SCRUBBERS . 123
Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
CO2 Storage I - Geological . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
CO2 Storage II - In Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
III FIRST STEPS
7 HOW DO I GET GOING? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Diversifiers and Purists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Key Principles for Making Purchases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Decision-Making Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
How to Get Going . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Communication Is Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
8 SECURE, FAIR AND AFFORDABLE CARBON REMOVAL -
BEYOND THE COMPANY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
How We Can Make Carbon Removal Safe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
How We Can Make Carbon Removal Fair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
How We Can Make Carbon Removal Affordable . . . . . . . . 181
EPILOGUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
A Long Road Ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Global Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
ABOUT THE AUTHORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
I THE RACE TO NET ZERO
1 THE PATH TO NET ZERO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
The World of Tomorrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Net Zero? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
What Makes an Ambitious Climate Target? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
The Race to Zero with SBTi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
SBTi is Not Perfect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Why Some U.S. Companies
Are Still Struggling with SBTi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2 THE CARBON CREDIT JUNGLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
How the Voluntary Carbon Market Came to Be . . . . . . . . . 40
How Carbon Crediting Projects Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
What Is Going Wrong in the Voluntary Carbon Market? . 45
Different Types of Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Carbon Credits for Net Zero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
To Achieve Net Zero, We Need Carbon Removal . . . . . . . . 52
The Way Forward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
II CARBON REMOVAL
3 OVERVIEW OF THE MOST IMPORTANT
CARBON REMOVAL METHODS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
One World, Two Cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4 LETTING NATURE DO THE HEAVY LIFTING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Afforestation/Reforestation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Regenerative Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Peatlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Biomass Conservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Blue Carbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5 LENDING NATURE A HELPING HAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Enhanced Weathering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Biochar Carbon Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
6 ENGINEERED SOLUTIONS FROM BIOENERGY TO CO2
SCRUBBERS . 123
Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Direct Air Carbon Capture and Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
CO2 Storage I - Geological . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
CO2 Storage II - In Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
III FIRST STEPS
7 HOW DO I GET GOING? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Diversifiers and Purists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Key Principles for Making Purchases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Decision-Making Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
How to Get Going . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Communication Is Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
8 SECURE, FAIR AND AFFORDABLE CARBON REMOVAL -
BEYOND THE COMPANY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
How We Can Make Carbon Removal Safe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
How We Can Make Carbon Removal Fair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
How We Can Make Carbon Removal Affordable . . . . . . . . 181
EPILOGUE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
A Long Road Ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Global Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
SOURCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
ABOUT THE AUTHORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223