The Urgency of Reaching Net Zero Emissions

On this week’s episode of Political Climate, we look at the climate science underpinning the net-zero-by-2050 target and what it will take to achieve it.

Julia Pyper January 24, 2020

Julia Pyper

Senior Editor
Greentech Media

Julia Pyper is a Senior Editor at Greentech Media covering the energy transition. She is also the host and producer of the Political Climate podcast. She previously reported for E&E Publishing, and has covered clean energy and climate change issues across the U.S. and abroad, including in India, Haiti, Israel and the Maldives. She holds degrees from McGill and Columbia Universities. Find her on Twitter @JMPyper.

This is a pivotal moment in the fight against climate change. Rising global emissions are fueling the need for mitigation, but there are a lot of open questions around how to do that.

Net-zero emissions by 2050 has emerged as the target that the world must hit in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Policymakers and activists in the U.S. are working to put the net-zero goal into law, and multiple major companies have already pledged to achieve carbon-neutrality. But what will it really take to reach zero?

That’s the question Political Climate will explore in the coming months in a new podcast series called “Path to Zero,” presented in partnership with Third Way. This series will look at how people are being affected by the transition to cleaner energy resources, and the economic challenges and opportunities created in the process. It will examine the technologies and policies we need to drive down carbon emissions, and the politics influencing this activity.

In this first episode of the series we speak to Josh Freed, senior vice president of Third Way's climate and energy program, about why we’re focusing on net-zero emissions to begin with. Then we look at the climate science underpinning this goal in an interview with scientist and climate strategist Jane Long, former associate director for energy and environment at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.