oh, rare natural spectacle in an improved world. ah, the meeting of the loom whale sharks of the remote island of saint hulu. it is a testament to the quality of the artisans waters. one of the many success stories from a bastion of biodiversity said on november 18th, on d. w. o, o climate, neutrality, fewer emissions stopping climate change. that's what every one these days claims to be striving full, fema advise the climate neutral climate efficient climate. whatever. every term has

climate at its heart is, is, i also think it's what we're all working towards. it is really already a glimpse that supermarket shelves shows that climate neutral is now more fashionable than organic. many products are labeled this way chemo. it's violated to such climate neutral as a very broad term, of course. and let's ultimately we should be aiming to live in a climate neutral fashion to live sustainably. but it's a controversial concept. the term has not been legally defined and is climate neutrality even possible? if i like the imagination to figure out how it's attainable in almost all economic systems, early science, well zealand lincoln's and his son hendrick, a busy planting trees for the climate, but gins has been doing this for 20 years. now. his business plant, my tree, acquires land all across germany for reforestation. the company enables private

individuals to offset their carbon footprint. for $175.00 euros a year. put guns on his team, plant 12 trees in return. your maniachi under columbus, we are ecologically transforming the woodland with the trees. we are adding here, foreign on store, and we are pleased that we can create something here for future generations that will provide a habitat for wildlife and lots of oxygen groups here. trees absorb c o 2 from the atmosphere during the process of photosynthesis, store carbon in their bio mass and release oxygen. that's good for the climate. the principle of offsetting is based on this idea. it compensates for the production of greenhouse gases. that's why many companies also fun to put guns, reforestation projects, his business model offsetting the carbon footprints of others,

is successful because he earns money with every tree that he plants his clients range from the local baker to germany's major blue chip companies. so what are their motives not really, kids all ta named is are of course the mother of those companies that say they are doing it. so on the one hand, because it helps nature with people, but also because it helps their image feel fetish, other motives are very diverse than what you, what you want the biggest driving forces, no doubt what a love of nature. well, i love everyone realize as things have to change, but we have to act now allison, planting trees is a wonderful way to help on a vulnerable mazama. the companies who help pay for the reforestation are allowed to use a label that shows their involvement. certainly, germany's woodlands can benefit from reforestation, no matter whether the sponsors are acting out of true conviction or not. in many

places, they are not in good shape. these spruce forests in western germany are infested with bark beatles, and they'll soon have to be cut down. right next to it, the team is planting a mix of tree species. the sponsors see that as a meaningful step towards climate neutrality. but what does climate utility actually mean? the i p c. c puts it like this. climate neutrality is balancing emissions, so they are equal or less than the emissions that get removed through the planets, natural absorption. what they mean is all economic activity release is c o 2. to reduce these emissions to 0, you can either cut them yourself or you can offset your emissions by compensating for them in other ways. by creating ecosystems like forests, for instance, which absorb and store carbon dioxide from the air. but how much

c o 2? does the single tree absorb? i've run it by film. oh yeah, it is very, very difficult to assess how much they store per year because it is dependent on so many factors non such as the amount of rainfall, the default is infeasible. rain is needed for photosynthesis and office and it can't be too hot either. m. trees always start to store really significant amounts after 8 or 10 years, so not often befitting limbs your loss. oh, this sampling will need a fair few years to get up to speed in terms of storage, height, girth, and wood density also play a role. i the type of tree. there are various statistical models that attempt to gauge precisely how much c, o 2 a single tree can store. they estimate that by the time its ac, a mature beach has absorbed something in excess of

a ton of carbon dioxide. the tree absorb some $12.00 kilos each year. we would have to plant 80 beach trees annually to offset one ton of c o 2. yet in germany about 11 tons produced per capita, each year to offset that, more than $800.00 trees would have to be planted for each person. and all of these beach trees would have to live to be at least 80 years old. otherwise, the some doesn't add up, which is possible though beach is capable of living to be over 300 years old for the climate neutrality equation to work out. trees have to live a long time on top of that. the wood can't be burned, nor can it wrought. so you see the carbon offsets of a forest a difficult to calculate. at the technical university in berlin, environmental scientist mathias fink binah is researching how to measure

sustainability and environmental impact. he sees the biggest problem in guaranteeing that carbon dioxide is permanently removed from the atmosphere the comics adjuster, and as to how can i ensure that the c o 2 removed from the air remains ideally trapped inside for ever. who is going to guarantee that the forest won't be taught our in is the and the moment that it is cut down. it triggers the process that leads to the c o. 2 emissions being released to get started because these are fields why miss yawn? little flags had still zealand klingons and his team are aware of this problem. the areas of land that they plant are owned by a trust that they set up specially for this purpose. the trees will not be utilized at least for as long as that trust exists. the tree planting idea shows that climate neutrality is a bit of a slippery concept. yet the label is

everywhere. on supermarket shelves, for example, whether in loads of climate, positive, carbon neutral or climate neutral products, food manufacturers are clearly keen to claim their products don't harm the environment. but what is the truth behind these claims? is less and luther's b. i dear, ultimately is that you reduce your emissions as far as possible and then somehow compensate for the remaining ones if you know, but exactly how this is measured normally, which emissions are included in which possibilities really count towards counting emissions that has not really been defined unfortunately, does a slide on, on the slightly, fiscally, when companies say their product said climate neutral, it's not quite clear what that means. they can use very different calculations to

arrive at the claim of 0 emissions. and no one is really checking yada sits toity sir. this will be the fact that this concept is not legally regulated or standardized is of course, her problem lives is not, was from called limb by the, an in these it differs vastly indiscreetly, quality, and clinched as a consumer. i don't really know what the substance of these advertising claims are . vices really miss vascular subsilencio. there are cheap solutions. i gibbs gung, where people haven't even attempted to reduce the emissions created, making their product kind of entrepreneur window. and then there are others who have really made a big effort when they are sitting on the same shelf, making the same claims. when do you stand with implies from claim in regard to the claim to be climate neutral is a pledge or rather an assertion the consumer goods industry is acting voluntarily. apart from some sectors like mobility,

heavy industry and fossil fuels. there's no legal obligation in germany to reduce emissions. so why a company so interested in bearing this label? in his book, austria marcus sonia is the ceo of a family business. for more than 50 years sonia have been producing gloves. the company has been describing itself as climate neutral for 3 years. what's that aim? more customers to mrs. out there on sophistic this labor comp for me. and the issue is itself important. and such a label doesn't yet mean much to most consumers and does as we have just gotten the results of a survey that shows only 21 percent of consumers. him say that it is really important to them to support a climate neutral business. offend isn't to buy their product line or harmful from you. it's a decision that i have made for our company. for our family. when marcus sonya

decided to make his company climate neutral, his son was 4 years old. human, almost because i thought to myself, back then, okay, if this is really going to work for generation number 3, i want to leave behind a company that considers the coming generations and the environment to let things. it's clearly something close to marcus sonia's heart. that's why he decided to embark on a long and difficult process. it's time for the annual emissions stop taking. this involves checking all the phases in the production process. they 1st carried out a calculation of this kind in 2018. seeing the company's entire c o 2 output in black and white was something ma, kristinia will never forget on francois to me that thank you. so initially it was a real shock. oh god. oh god is what we are doing as a catastrophe. isn't it?

the sofa, but there's no avoiding it is give up on it unless you go up from all life on all activity on all types of business. create c o 2. that was the main takeaway for me of learning. and what is important is that we adopt a more conscious approach. they've also on did that same of a time with those of ford. sonya that means reducing emissions as much as possible in the manufacturing process and the company offices. there are external consultants to help advise him what to do about the rest. like munich based climate partner, for instance. margaret's name cool is the founder and ceo of one of the biggest organizations of its kind in germany. there are many others too. they like climate neutrality, consultants, they guide evaluate and recommend suitable solutions, and they issue a label at the end should on stability, does not

a step number. one is the analysis suits by miss. where are c o 2 emissions being produced? 60 percent is connected with the product should sliced up to is then looking to see where a missions could be reduced or avoid a table might scoots. how can we effect change the short mediums and long time? besides, for example, logistics packaging or using different materials in household, different materials. the austrian glove manufacturers zeniah say this is one way that they could reduce their harmful emissions. for example, by using recycled materials or a glove made partially from cork, which is sustainable because it grows back naturally. but the seo is also having to rethink other areas to the company produces internationally in austria, germany, but also in china and vietnam. the supply chains along and energy intensive august . exactly. logistics is of course an issue for book we're currently switching to

100 percent e mobility and our fleet of him as we're going to make big reductions there. oh start. where we are also making big reductions is in printed matter. so anything involving paper appear to paul has but the individual company decides where it intends to make reductions. and by how much. oh said the extent to which it offsets its emissions is voluntary, there are no legal requirements to do so. professor mateus think buying a sees that is one of the cool problems of the concept of climate neutrality. making comprehensive assessments of accompanies emissions or those related to particular products and then reducing them effectively is very expensive. the oh, fun for me was winds, casino listens roughly below producing an environmental audit that holds water scientifically. takes a great deal of effort. so for us,

it would involve tracing the supply chain of but really looking at where the raw materials come from flight likable. even with relatively simple products consisting of 2 or 3 components of fiber, cost, $10000.00 euros upwards off of the complex products. it could, of course, be a lot at least voicemails and some of the offset scheme. providers who also earned money with offsetting have no interest in carrying out high value or disc the and they practically give that away for free because the economic return is generated by the sale of c o 2 certificates for cove. the comments or torn study for calculus for the environmental scientist mathias. think by now, it's clear the consultancy companies also earn money, not by avoiding c o 2 emissions, but by offsetting them. c o 2 certificates show that a certain amount of c o 2 has been saved. usually in developing countries. the problem is that frequently c o 2 audits and the provision of certificates

a carried out by the same company, lucid oil. they're all fired him. we still see cases to day, a very simple audits being carried out even by some of the big market players. because the focus of interest is not on cutting emissions or whatever. because when i just need a figure that i can then offset, reminds you from the info call from the comments that yawn and some companies, even salva certificates. at the same time i list was hard to though i'm not saying that everything that's on the market, today's all bad harbor scripture. but there are lot of plans which portray all these various steps is very simplified, fucked up the ability to climate partner, moorehead, slim coolness company, also provides c o 2 certificates and its own climate neutral label. doesn't the c? i think there are too many offset projects and ting, few real reductions in emissions to my not really did with him as high as i would describe climate neutrality, more like a journey that step one, we audit set goals and reduce and offset

a lot of c o 2 emissions minute compensate of the amount to offset has to be further reduced. of course of you. we need change management to start concerning ourselves with the suppliers, with processes, etc. that should never stop. stop that you should never succumb to the temptation to say, i'm going to conduct an order to make offsets end of story. this is at least as tim climate neutrality is an ongoing process. marcus, sonya has clearly understood this principle. the austrian glove maker says he aims to continue cutting his companies c o 2 emissions step by step. but zeniah needs comp and offsets to is everybody could look to fill in surgeons and i always say that the care it for us companies on is to keep on reducing our own c o, 2 emissions on that. we will never be able to avoid them altogether. in was, was, if it was, and you have to be aware of that on 1st in, if the service. but at some point, when things have pretty much bottomed out where you can't reduce emissions any

further on reynolds, that's what must be offset that i some of in nova, i'm with lieutenant as miss middleton malls. k. the company supports carbon offset projects to protect the environment in the alps. and in china, this, along with the reduction measures that they've implemented, has led to them being classified as having 0 emissions and, and them the label climate neutral. climate partners own climate neutral labels come with individual id numbers. the idea is to give customers the chance to find out more about the climate neutral project. must go to the market. what has been done? what measures have already been taken to avoid emissions for our c, o 2 emissions offset what projects are being supported? husband on the idea as maximum transparency and these are the steps that are repeated over and over again. he to see, to see every year how far you have advanced, how much you have reduced, and what you have avoided. what needs to be offset against what your competitor

participating in seo to offset schemes abroad, like solar parks or wind farms is another potential problem. under the 2015 paris agreement, most countries are obliged to reduce their own emissions. that means that there's a danger that some of these projects are counted twice over as so much carbon offsetting takes place internationally. vineyards and comments or thoughts on peter and if a carbon offset provider funds a renewable energy plant in a certain country, india or brazil, for instance, it is counted as a reduction in the carbon audit of a company all product em. but who ensures that the country where the plant is located does not include it in its own climate audit. and so that reduction would then be counted twice on the that of john. if he's a mission costs accounted several times. there is the risk that will all be climate

neutral by 2050 on the paper, but that the c o 2 emissions in the atmosphere will keep rising atmosphere that one last night. so climate neutrality may also lead to a paradoxical result. nevertheless, companies that operate globally, believe that the label is increasingly important. what should we think about these multi nationals climate promises? experts from the new climate institutes have been investigating that question. the cologne based think tank develops ideas about climate change and investigates. existing concepts, caston, veronica, is a partner at the non profit company. in their latest study, he and his colleagues have taken a closer look at the climate. pledges made by the world's 25 biggest companies are merged to africa. do they want to present themselves in a good light school so that they don't lose certain segments of the markets with us

now that the climate issue was very high up and the agenda in those, we put ourselves to the consumers position and say, ok the of the companies are claiming that and then they have to make the following information publicly and easily accessible for going from a to an armful of from dish mom on over to a future. if company says it aims to become climate neutral 520402030, or even 2025 than veronica stresses, it must be evident how that goal will be attained. mainly by cutting emissions or solely via carbon offsets. the new climate institute finding show that most companies lack transparency here, damsel few negative risk of when we have come across a lot of negative stuff here. where a lot of energy has been invested by companies to muddle things, to cover things up, so that they can make these assertions good thumb moving her, stella, for example, harding, furniture, manufacturers who say i have stored carbon in my furniture space and it is

permanently stored there, awesome, and there's so much wood in her furniture that the bottom line is that we have negative emissions, so known. but how long does this furniture last? is it equivalent to the carbon releases to help create them for stored in a form that would last millions of years of, you know, stop them. we all know how quickly we replace our furniture these days. it doesn't work like that. and thus down the syncing insulin, is there even airports that can claim to be climate neutral? like hamburg apples here, emissions have been reduced by 80 percent since 2009 even calls a used at the airport and it runs its own combined heat and power plant. and there's green electricity to buds. it's important to bear in mind that the apples only regards itself as responsible for ground operations, not what happens in the air as stated by law. the emissions caused by the air

traffic within europe are in fact already covered by e. u emissions trading. but this example shows that often only elements of a product or a company or climate neutral such as the production, but not the logistics or distribution. the choice to reveal this or not is voluntary participation, after all, is also entirely voluntary. must demarco city. this is an unregulated markets which was created by private players. well, this is from chris from a state monitor children's nor state regulated michelle, michigan. yeah, they're good standards and good initiatives. but there is also a lot of uncontrolled growth, some very, very bad stuff. guns for non experts, it's quite difficult or almost impossible to find your way through the stronger issue a foster more position is enjoyed safin. it remains impossible for consumers to

really get to the truth behind climate neutral labels. so marketing claims. the state gives companies far too much leeway. ah, ah, zealand lincoln's and his son hendrick, are on the road in where in germany's, i say, region across germany, lincoln's and his team have planted more than 1200000 trees in the last few years. the condition of the re forested areas has to be reviewed regularly of muddy. i shall look the oaks. they have also made it baskets around there. the 1st oaks we planted about 12 years ago for if you're on the field now. well, i'm sure he, i'm far won't i guess i'm, i used to just run down here and play in the hey, don't hear you. oh,

yeah. i know. and now you can't even make your way through here any more of the internet. which lawson. this is the oldest re forested area created by susan pumpkins. company. and we're here is francisco mills. arden is the s, i can't say exactly where the 1st tree i planted stands with somewhere here. yahoo! only, i don't know how old i was. maybe 8 or so. it's always really special to see the trees here and how much they've grown. we'll see it's, it's great which ones are shown boseman know that climate neutrality cannot be achieved by planting trees alone. but susan pumpkins believes it's not an option to do nothing wrong. and with every tree that he plants, he's also making a contribution towards bio diversity. as of if that much the hotline to my tree is not saying the solution is to plant trees and everything will be fine on phone. so to be far too easy and too good to be true.

but it's only one step on the way to a greener, healthier future ah, one path to a better future. it's not just companies and multi nationals that have the aim of net 0 emissions. entire states have declared this their goal, and they want to achieve it quickly. that's according to experts like mateus think binah is exactly where the problem nice. lisa, tight coke with this pressure and pushed to achieve such an ambitious goal so quickly can sometimes mean that the right measures are not implemented. in reality, yes, i thought i prefer someone who says i am going to reduce emissions gradually. well, to attempt to become climate neutral by 2050 than someone who says that they will be climate neutral by 2030. but who has no idea how? by just by c o 2 certificates consul tv, it was the construct of to say i have these remaining emissions and i have quantified them these. and this is why i cannot reduce these emissions yet. oh me,

it is amazon or that makes things transparent. one of pennsburg and then you could say we're trying to reach climate neutrality by this date, but we can only guarantee a 95 percent reduction by then for more full transparency as constructive, fuller transport. it sounds less ambitious and public any, but it would be significantly better. avila dotted before climate neutrality is a key 10 international climate policy. but when it comes to how it's done, things tend to be a bit more difficult. that has a lot to do with the fact that implementation is mainly voluntary and unregulated. the climate neutral label is hard to pin down and can easily be used as just another green washing strategy. with

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