At a press conference on 10 June in Vienna, the CCCA guide "The Path to Climate Neutrality" was launched, aimed at all Austrian businesses.
It summarises the scientific foundations and international standards, and points businesses towards a practical path to decarbonisation. The guide is the scientific community's response to the often careless or even misleading use of the term "climate neutrality". It offers a binding reference for all actors on the path towards Austria's climate neutrality target by 2040.
At the press conference, it became clear that climate neutrality and competitiveness are not at odds with each other — in fact, businesses gain an advantage in (international) competition when they transition and decarbonise their business models early, and develop new, sustainable ones. The guide also aims to provide a platform for pioneering companies in climate protection.
It's available for download at https://ccca.ac.at/netzwerkaktivitaeten/ag-klimaneutral
As a next step, the CCCA Working Group on Climate Neutrality will produce an equivalent climate neutrality guide for towns and municipalities, also developed in close collaboration with the future users of the guide.
The Working Group on Climate Neutrality synthesises knowledge from climate research on the topic of climate neutrality, in order to put it into practice together with stakeholders in Austria. The aim is to support businesses as well as towns and other local authorities with scientific evidence and criteria, thereby creating a basis for a consistent assessment of reduction targets and achievements. To this end, the Working Group on Climate Neutrality has, as a first step, developed a Climate Neutrality Guide with a scientifically grounded roadmap, as a science-based practical guide for businesses.
The guide, entitled "The Path to Climate Neutrality", is aimed at businesses that want to achieve climate neutrality — in the sense of greenhouse gas neutrality — and are looking for appropriate decarbonisation strategies, particularly if they intend to market their company as "climate neutral", "CO2-neutral" or "Net Zero". Taking the right steps is crucial to achieving this status. This guide offers science-based and practice-oriented support to help Austrian businesses get quickly onto a robust climate neutrality pathway that is compatible with the global 1.5-degree target and the national climate neutrality target for 2040.
Seven chapters set out the necessary steps that businesses need to take in order to plan, budget, and implement their path to climate neutrality.
