Climate Neutral Now is one of several streams of work the UN Climate Change secretariat uses to engage non-Party stakeholders in global climate action. It was launched in 2015 following a mandate to promote the voluntary use of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a carbon market mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol.  

“Voluntary use” refers to the opening of the CDM and its carbon credits for use by non-State actors; the mechanism was previously meant to support countries’ compliance efforts under the Kyoto Protocol. This opening therefore supports the goal of the Paris Agreement by inviting more actors to support projects that reduce or capture greenhouse gas emissions.

However, Climate Neutral Now has since evolved to become a much wider tool for awareness-raising, capacity building, facilitation of the estimation of carbon footprints, provision of guidance for reduction of those footprints, and promoting voluntary compensation. In addition to the companies and organizations that have taken the Climate Neutral Now pledge, we are also working through partnerships with external organizations across the world.

What do participants do?

Participants must estimate their carbon footprint (check out the Lifestyle Calculator co-developed with Doconomy), plan and implement actions to reduce it, -optionally- compensate emissions that cannot be avoided yet, and report yearly.

Depending on the completeness and robustness of their actions, they receive different levels of recognition (bronze, silver, gold).

Who is participating?

Participants include multinational enterprises such as Microsoft, Sony or Commerzbank, but also small and medium size companies and organizations, including schools, universities and consultancy firms. Climate Neutral Now aims to promote ambitious and credible action, while remaining flexible enough to allow both large and small organizations to participate.

What is the current status of the initiative?

Since 2015, close to 700 participants have joined the initiative. This is how Climate Neutral Now looks today.

As interest in climate action has increased, so has the number of participants. Geographical distribution remains a challenge however, as most participants come from Europe while representation from Africa remains limited.

You can also see that Reduction is the most difficult step: fewer participants are able to reach gold level under this pillar. This confirms that reduction is the main challenge for all stakeholders globally, hence our aim to provide additional support in this area.

Latest collaborations

In addition to existing collaborations, such as:

• the Airport Council International around its Airport Carbon Accreditation program;
• the Gulf Organization for Research and Development (Qatar) and UNEP for the development of a tool to plan sustainable events;
• the whole UN system to make it carbon neutral by 2020 (99% achieved);
• and more,

we are happy to report that the following have just been established:

The Foundation Development and Climate Alliance of Germany and Climate Neutral Now have just signed an agreement to further promote voluntary action by the private sector in Germany, including the use of carbon markets to deliver sustainable development benefits to developing nations.

At the signing ceremony, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said: “The decisions on carbon markets taken at the Glasgow Climate Change Conference are important milestones to implement the Paris Agreement. The private sector plays a key role in taking and funding climate action and I am glad to strengthen our collaboration with the Foundation to support this.”

Similarly, the Thailand GHG Management Organization (TGO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the secretariat to advance voluntary action in Thailand. In a collaboration that goes beyond Climate Neutral Now and includes the Regional Collaboration Centre Bangkok, both organizations will raise awareness, build capacity, and encourage voluntary action by the private sector.

Finally, a series of capacity building webinars will be delivered in collaboration with CANELATAM (Carbon Neutral Latin American network), and several collaborations with other networks (Carbon Footprint Alliance) and countries (Costa Rica, Chile) are being developed.

How is this linked to other climate action work?

Climate Neutral Now is part of UN Climate Change's Global Climate Action family of work. It contributes to catalyzing climate action among non-Party stakeholders but has the unique role, together with our sectoral partnerships, of working directly with stakeholders in the real economy. This does not only provide unique opportunities for the UN Climate Change secretariat to engage directly some of the key enablers for climate action around the world but has also resulted in several new initiatives and incubator projects that help introduce climate action in new areas and through new approaches.

How can I support Climate Neutral Now?

Do you know businesses or organizations that could join the initiative? Do you know of organizations that can help amplify the call for voluntary action in collaboration with Climate Neutral Now? If so, please contact the team!