Last edited 02 May 2025

Greenhouse gas neutrality

Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis, Annex VII: Glossary, written by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and published by Cambridge University Press in 2023, defines greenhouse gas neutrality as a: ‘Condition in which metric-weighted anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with a subject are balanced by metric-weighted anthropogenic GHG removals. The subject can be an entity such as a country, an organization, a district or a commodity, or an activity such as a service or an event. GHG neutrality is often assessed over the life cycle, including indirect (‘scope 3’) emissions, but can also be limited to the emissions and removals, over a specified period, for which the subject has direct control, as determined by the relevant scheme. The quantification of GHG emissions and removals depends on the GHG emission metric chosen to compare emissions and removals of different gases, as well as the time horizon chosen for that metric.’

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