Difference Between Carbon Neutral and Net Zero

The key difference between carbon neutral and net zero is that carbon neutral refers to the state of achieving net zero carbon emission, whereas net zero refers to zero carbon dioxide emission.

Carbon neutrality is an important concept in environmental chemistry. It refers to the reduction of carbon dioxide emission in order to prevent global warming. Global warming leads to sudden climate changes that can cause different short-time and long-time disasters.

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Carbon Neutral
3. What is Net Zero
4. Side by Side Comparison – Carbon Neutral vs Net Zero in Tabular Form
5. Summary

What is Carbon Neutral?

Carbon neutral refers to achieving a state of zero carbon dioxide emission. The concept is useful in determining and reducing carbon dioxide emissions associated with transportation, energy, production, agriculture, etc. There are two approaches that can be used to obtain this state: by balancing carbon emissions with carbon removal or by using renewable energy that does not produce carbon emissions.

Difference Between Carbon Neutral and Net Zero

Figure 01: Carbon Emission

Balancing the carbon level by carbon removal is an important approach regarding carbon neutrality. And, this concept includes natural processes which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to make some space for the carbon emission elsewhere.

Elimination of carbon emission through using renewable energy is the other approach for carbon neutrality. Typically, renewable energy forms do not produce carbon dioxide at all; for example, wind, solar power, etc. Moreover, this approach involves the reduction of industrial and agricultural carbon emission by making changes to industries, e.g., carbon projects, emissions trading, etc.

Achieving carbon neutrality includes the following steps:

Commitment – this step includes the political leadership at a higher level and wide popular agreement for the changes that are suggested for industries.
Counting – a crucial step which involves the calculations of carbon emissions in a selected area, considering the particular parameters.
Analyzing – the most important step in the cycle of carbon neutrality achievement in which we need to analyze calculated data to get conclusions
Action – using an environmental management system to start working towards carbon emission reduction
Reduction – via limiting energy consumption and emissions that come from transportation agriculture, etc. and using renewable energy sources
Offsetting – using carbon offsets to neutralize a certain volume of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide
Evaluation and repeating – evaluate results to decide the necessary improvements and repeat the process for better results

What is Net Zero?

Net zero refers to the zero carbon dioxide emission. This state can be obtained by balancing a particular amount of carbon released with an equivalent carbon emission offset. It may involve buying enough carbon credits to reduce the difference.

Figure 02: A Test Building for Zero Energy

For example, a net-zero building is a building having zero net energy consumption. Here, the total energy the building uses per a particular time period should be equal to the renewable energy that is produced during the same time period in that area, which balances the carbon emission.

What is the Difference Between Carbon Neutral and Net Zero?

Carbon neutrality is an important concept in environmental chemistry. Carbon neutrality is important in obtaining the net zero stage. The key difference between carbon neutral and net zero is that carbon neutral refers to the state of achieving net zero carbon emission, whereas net zero refers to zero carbon dioxide emission. The process of achieving the carbon neutrality includes several steps such as commitment, counting and analyzing, action, reduction, offsetting, evaluation and repeating. Meanwhile, we can obtain the state of net zero by balancing a particular amount of carbon released with an equivalent carbon emission offset.

Below infographic shows a summary of the difference between carbon neutral and net zero.

Summary – Carbon Neutral vs Net Zero

Reference:

1. “Carbon Neutrality”. Wikipedia.Org, 2019, Available here.
2. Brown, Cameron. “Carbon Neutral Vs. Zero Carbon Vs. Negative Emissions – Cleantech Rising”. Cleantech Rising, 2019, Available here.