Climate Action Pursuit 2021

With the urgency to decarbonize as soon as possible, more claims of meeting carbon neutrality will increase. The Climate Leadership Network has had 10 signatories meet their carbon neutral goals. However, there is a current robust discussion regarding how claims are made and what should be included when sharing the accomplishment. As campuses continue to navigate goal-setting, metric-tracking, and strategy development to decarbonize, it's important that claims of carbon neutrality are transparent both for individual campuses and as a network of campuses. This session will keep the conversation going and will be split into two 45 minutes segments. It will begin with three presentations from sectors outside of higher education that will share how they have approached communicating and supporting carbon reduction goals. The presentations will be followed by 45 minutes of breakout, facilitated discussion focused on three topic areas:
1. Claiming Neutrality – What are scoping, science-based targets, observed reductions, offsetting, and verified considerations or requirements for a carbon neutral claim in higher education?
2. Market Based Instruments – What experiences have campuses had in setting offset policies, conducting procurements, and defining a “quality” offset and RECs.
3. Shared Emissions Obligations – How are Scope 3 emissions unique to higher education and what are appropriate approaches to track, reduce and offset these activities?