The United Nations Secretary-General has appointed an expert panel under the leadership of Canada's former environment minister with the aim of examining net-zero pledges undertaken by the private sector.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres underlined the importance of sharing the responsibility of achieving net-zero emissions by world governments by mid-century. He added that this responsibility is particularly crucial for the Group of 20 major emerging and industrialised economies that are accounting for 80 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

"We also urgently need every business, investor, city, state and region to walk the talk on their net-zero promises," he noted.

The UN-appointed 16-member panel is appointed to make recommendations before the year-end on various standards and definitions for setting net-zero targets for economies. The panel will also set key standards for measuring and verifying the progress in achieving net-zero targets as well as various ways to translate this progress into international and national regulations.

The panel will also scrutinise commitments made by local and regional governments that do not directly report to the UN.

UN climate envoy Selwin Hart affirmed that the panel will not "name and shame" individual companies for non-achievement of the net-zero commitments among other factors.

Chaired by Canada's minister of environment and climate change Catherine McKenna, the panel includes leading Australian climate scientist Bill Hare, South Africa-based sustainable finance expert Malango Mughogho and former long-time governor of China's central bank, Zhou Xiaochuan. McKenna will be chairing the panel between 2015 to 2019.

SOURCE: WAM

LINK: https://www.wam.ae/en/details/1395303035965