Experts say the net zero concept is often used to delay taking action against emissions - ABC News

Experts say the net zero concept is often used to delay taking action against emissions.

But a schism has emerged among the faithful, with major environmental groups and several leading climate experts now washing their hands of the net zero concept.

One way that countries have sought to achieve their net zero ambitions is by setting up a carbon market to allow heavy-polluting industries to offset their emissions by buying carbon credits.

"The main concern is to ensure that the money is actually flowing to climate action and not to financial players or intermediaries, " he told ABC RN's Future Tense.

"The whole concept is being exploited by companies who don't want to take any meaningful action and who see a cheap way out of their responsibility by just purchasing these carbon credits," he says.

Earth Systems scientist James Dyke says that net zero was originally designed as a last-resort measure to allow a very small number of essential industries, like aviation and steelmaking, to offset their emissions and decarbonise over time.

Part of Australia's net zero by 2050 plan is to use carbon capture and storage to help get emissions down.

But he says the term lost credibility when it began to be indiscriminately used as an excuse to delay taking action, pushing the problem onto future generations.

"What we are doing by further talking this net zero lingo, by further thinking that we can boost the ability (of forests and oceans) to draw down massive amounts of carbon in the future, it's a very, very dangerous game we are playing.".

Net zero is a distraction, he says, our real emissions reduction goal should be zero.

Claire Tyson from Climate Analytics, an non-profit institute that monitors the commitments of 40 governments to net zero, including the richest nations, admits the concept is struggling, but she still has faith it can work.

"I think in many instances this notion of future removals, and the framing around net zero, is being used to stop those questions," he says