Climate transformation refers to the holistic shift toward a climate-neutral economy. Based on research results from the Exponential Roadmap, the term “climate transformation” refers to a rapid, cross-industry transformation of the economy through concrete CO2-reducing measures, technical innovations and specific climate solutions.
In this process, measuring and offsetting CO2 takes place as a necessary support for CO2 reduction, but not as a decisive goal of the intended, profound change.
In order to create transparency and to identify the emission-rich stages of the value chain, the measurement of one’s own CO2 footprint is indispensable.
The CO2 footprint (also: CO2 balance) in the economic sense describes the direct and indirect CO2e emissions that are emitted by corporate processes (GHG Protocol, 2015).
The CO2 footprint forms the totality of these emissions from activities carried out within a year. CO2 measurement is the first step in understanding one’s own emission sources and the potential for CO2 reduction within one’s own company (GHG Protocol, 2015).
In order to reach the common 1.5°C target, the global community needs to achieve an annual CO2e reduction of at least 7% (Exponential Roadmap, 2018) . Companies such as governments and NGOs must therefore focus on CO2e reduction in their climate transformation process. To enable a particularly rapid CO2e reduction, the Exponential Roadmap identifies 36 individual climate solutions in different industries that enable sector-specific 50% CO2e emission reductions by 2030. Reduction targets should identify concrete measures within a defined timeframe.
Based on the Exponential Roadmap, solution providers can be found in 9 impact categories on our software platform.
The idea of CO2e offsetting is to compensate (offsetting) locally generated emitted emissions by saving them somewhere other than where they are produced. This helps to ensure that the CO2e content in the atmosphere does not increase (Umweltbundesamt, 2019). For example, by supporting climate protection projects and technological or nature-based carbon removal processes, emitted greenhouse gases can be offset in a decentralized manner. The concept was initiated in 1997 by the Kyoto Protocol to promote climate protection measures where they could not be financed. As a result, there is a mandatory CO2 offset with CO2 trading certificates at the state level for various industries. In addition, a voluntary market for climate protection financing exists in the global South (Umweltbundesamt, 2019).
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