We are aware that anticipating the achievement of net CO2 neutrality by 2030 even for those countries representing only 33% of global emissions is an ambitious goal from technical, economic, and political points of view.
Nevertheless, we believe it is worth communicating to citizens and politicians at the national, European, and global levels the scientific data and the climate risks arising in case we do not bring forward the target date for reaching net CO2 neutrality from 2050 to 2030 (at least for those countries responsible for 33% of the emissions) and do not speed up the process of decarbonization starting with small sacrifices on a personal level – Covid-19 has taught us a lot!
In light of the efforts to combat Covid 19 (far beyond those needed to become CO2 neutral by 2030), we want to prove that becoming net CO2 neutral by 2030 is an achievable goal. Above all, we want to prove that we can immediately do much more than what is currently being done starting with the use of “carbon offsetting” as widely as possible both voluntarily and through the imposition of a carbon tax.
In fact, according to some projections made at European level, it has emerged that to become net CO2 neutral would cost less than 1% of GDP (which could be collected with a carbon tax on all goods and services). This cost does not seem to be too onerous or unrealistic when we are dealing with such an important crisis. It may be as little as €10 per month per person. With the help of LifeGate, a leading company in carbon offsetting which transformed the Maloja Palace into CO2 neutral already in 2020, we would like to include an option to carbon offset the individual carbon emissions in the draft of the Call to Action.
Large corporations in the oil and rail transportation industry could, for example, include in their fuel or ticket sales process the possibility to pay small percentage to “carbon offset” the use of fuel or the train journey.