• kobra@lemm.ee
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    11 months ago

    I’m confused on what the EU is going for here. When I read “carbon neutral” I assume that means minimized emissions + carbon offsets.

    I’m not sure if “zero carbon” is even a thing but it sounds like that is what EU wants “carbon neutral” to mean?

    • doczombie@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Carbon credits have been abused all sorts of ways as essentially a license to continue polluting. The EU’s current stance is that the credit programs are so fucked in this manner they no longer really count.

      Apples current approach of ‘everything we can and credit the rest’ is still ahead of the majority of the industries position, but not surprising that EU don’t accept it as ‘zero carbon.’

      What the EU would like is for everyone to take responsibility for their own carbon generation throughout the entire supply chain rather than buying credits from greener companies, whether this is realistic or practical is yet to be seen.

    • CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      If I kill your dog but give you a new one I don’t think I could be described as “dog neutral”

      • regnskog@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        This isn’t a great metaphor. My dog is a singular individual and another dog isn’t my dog, so you can’t represent it with numbers. A carbon molecule is equivalent to another carbon molecule and can be abstracted.

        That said, carbon credits sure seems like making up numbers to make something bad look better, just not in this way.

        • CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          Except one CO2 molecule trapped in a stable environment, like underground coal, or natural oil reserve, is absolutely not equivalent to some other CO2 molecule in a far less stable environment, like artificially replanted forests.

          I actually liked my dog metaphor specifically because of just like one dog isn’t comparable to another, the carbon trade is turning stable CO2 into CO2 that might be released back into the atmosphere fairly quickly

      • kobra@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        I mean… okay. What if I took a $1 bill from you and replaced with 4 quarters? Would that be “money neutral”? These metaphors aren’t really clearing up my confusion.

        Does the EU want carbon neutral to mean “zero carbon emitted during manufacturing/shipping/etc”?

        If so, that’s fine and clears up my confusion.

        I just think a “zero carbon” moniker would make more sense than “carbon neutral” which (at least to me) infers some kind of offset.

        • CommanderCloon@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          Not every CO2 “storage” is as stable as another one.

          The way CO2 output is “negated” is usually with poor, short term storage, that won’t actually help for climate change, in exchange for extracting extremely stable CO2 sources like petrol or coal

          • kobra@lemm.ee
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            11 months ago

            I’m not arguing that offsets are “okay” but they are what I have always understood the term “carbon neutral” to mean. I don’t think very many people understood what I wrote 🤷‍♂️