Logo: Climate Change Centre Austria (CCCA)

WG Climate Neutrality

The working group (WG) synthesizes the knowledge of climate research on the topic of climate neutrality in order to apply it together with actors in Austria. The aim is to support companies as well as cities and other local authorities with scientific evidence and criteria and thus create a basis for a uniform evaluation of reduction targets and successes. To this end, the Climate Neutrality WG is developing a climate neutrality guideline with scientifically based guidelines as a first step.

CCCA WG Climate Neutrality - Project and Procedure:
The Paris Agreement 2015 requires climate neutrality of all sectors - as soon as possible. The aim of the Climate Neutrality WG is to create a scientific basis for the climate neutrality of companies, organizations and local authorities in Austria.

Elements of this scientific basis - and thus tasks of the WG - are:

  1. Definition of the term climate neutrality in order to support its uniform use.
  2. Standardized balancing of all GHG emissions (emission factors, balance limits, scope 1, 2 and 3)
  3. Criteria for the assessment of emission reduction measures, with regard to global, national and sectoral reduction targets
  4. Criteria for the evaluation of compensation measures
  5. Scientific preparatory work for or support of the development of a national standard and label
  6. Criteria for the evaluation of climate neutrality roadmaps of companies, organizations and local authorities (benchmarks, best practices)

The WG Climate Neutrality synthesizes the state of the art in science and technology and prepares it according to the requirements of the users. For this purpose, it organizes itself in i) a steering group, ii) a science group and iii) a stakeholder group, which are in regular exchange with each other. The WG Climate Neutrality defines itself in a very dynamic field, in the midst of i) companies and local authorities that increasingly set climate neutrality targets and want to design them scientifically based, ii) consultants that want to market their respective tools and methods, iii) providers of offset measures and iv) national and international organizations that develop methods and set standards.

WG Steering Group: Holger Hoff (University of Graz), Günter Getzinger (TU Graz) and Philipp Wilfinger (CCCA)
Contact: ag-klimaneutral@ccca.ac.at

Invitation to the CCCA Information Event Guideline "Climate Neutral Company" on April 12, 2023:
The Austrian climate research network "Climate Change Centre Austria" (CCCA) synthesizes in the working group Climate Neutrality the state of the national and international science on this topic, in order to bring this knowledge together with all relevant Akteur:innen in Austria to the application.

The aim is to support companies, as well as cities and other local authorities, with scientific evidence, methods, criteria and goals on their way to climate neutrality.

In a first step, the WG Climate Neutrality is developing a guideline "Climate Neutral Company". This guideline is intended to provide Austrian companies with a science-based basis for a uniform and transparent procedure with regard toemissions accounting, the definition of reduction targets and measures, and the compensation of unavoidable residual emissions.

The central statements of this guideline will be presented for discussion at our information event on April 12.

Download Invitation & Agenda 12.04.2023

WG Workshop 04.07.2022:

Materials:

WG meeting on climate day 21.04.2022:

Activities of the climate neutrality WG 2020-2021: