News

Turning a groundswell of climate action into ground rules for net zero

Climate change : nature.com subject feeds · last updated

Turning a groundswell of climate action into ground rules for net zero | Nature Climate Change

Following a groundswell of voluntary net-zero targets by companies, regulators are increasingly introducing mandatory rules. If governments can overcome the barriers to rigour, coherence and fairness, such mandatory ‘ground rules’ have the potential to overcome the obstructionism that holds back a just climate transition.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

$29.99 / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 12 print issues and online access

$209.00 per year

only $17.42 per issue

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Allen, M. R. et al. Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 47, 849–887 (2022).
Fankhauser, S. et al. Nat. Clim. Change 12, 15–21 (2022).
Hale, T. et al. Clim. Policy 22, 18–29 (2022).
Rogelj, J. et al. Science 380, 1014–1016 (2023).
Lang, J. et al. Net Zero Tracker (Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, Data-Driven EnviroLab, NewClimate Institute & Oxford Net Zero, 2024);
https://zerotracker.net/methodology
Armour, J., Enriques, L. & Wetzer, T. Ariz. Law Rev. 65, 285–336 (2023).
Net Zero Tracker Everybody’s Business: The Net Zero Blind Spot (Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, Data-Driven EnviroLab, NewClimate Institute & Oxford Net Zero, 2022).
Hale, T. The Net-Zero Governance Conveyor Belt (Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, 2022).
Progress Report on Climate-Related Disclosures (FSB, 2023).
Snoep, M. J. Antitrust Enforc. 11, 1–4 (2023).
Wiseman, H. J., Klass, A., Macey, J. & Welton, S. Stanford Law Rev. 74, 969–1071 (2022).
Dubash, N. K. Science
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk7428(2023).
Rogelj, J., Geden, O., Cowie, A. & Reisinger, A. Nature 591, 365–368 (2021).
Rajamani, L. et al. Clim. Policy 21, 983–1004 (2021).
Emissions Gap Report 2023: Broken Record — Temperatures Hit New Highs, yet World Fails to Cut Emissions (Again) (UNEP, 2023).

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Oxford Martin School for supporting this work. T.H., T.W., S.K.A., M.A., K.A., B.C., S.F., C.H., L.R. and S.S. are part of Oxford Net Zero, which is supported by the University of Oxford’s Strategic Research Fund.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hale, T., Wetzer, T., Abebe, S.K. et al. Turning a groundswell of climate action into ground rules for net zero. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-01967-7
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-024-01967-7

Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics

State of Play

Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:

  • Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
  • Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
  • Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
  • Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. 

On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”

More informationabout Climate economics