Global and regional greenhouse gas emissions neutrality

The issue of greenhouse gas emissions neutrality as indicated in the Paris
Agreement is increasingly gaining interest among policymakers. However, key
questions need to be addressed before the concept could be used. The Paris
Agreement is aimed to keeping global warming to well below 2 °C and to pursue efforts to
limit it further, to 1.5 °C. These targets, in themselves, do not provide any guidance for
policymakers and investors about how to achieve them. As part of a stocktaking process,
policy makers are looking into various reduction targets and policy measures that could
contribute to the climate targets. The Paris Agreement also states the aim of global
greenhouse gas (GHG2) emissions peaking as soon as possible, and of achieving a balance
between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases in
the second half of this century. The second aim is often referred to as the concept of
greenhouse gas emissions neutrality. This publication discusses some of the relevant
questions related to this concept. It includes an overview of the literature and IAM model
runs and identifies knowledge gaps.