Principles of voluntary climate action

1. We view voluntary climate action as a useful complement to internal corporate measures to avoid and reduce emissions – not as a substitute for them. Avoiding and reducing emissions always takes top priority. Even companies with ambitious reduction pathways will continue to generate emissions on their way to achieving their net-zero targets, which are often not due to be met until 2050. In our view, it is therefore crucial to take responsibility today for ongoing and currently unavoidable emissions and to support high-quality climate action measures beyond their own value chains. This view is shared by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), the world’s leading organisation for setting corporate net-zero targets. In its Corporate Net-Zero Standard (Version 2.0), the SBTi regards tackling ongoing emissions – even before neutralizing residual emissions in a company’s net-zero target year – as an important contribution to climate protection. In particular, the financing of carbon removals plays a key role in this regard.
    
2. Voluntary climate contribution can be based on a company’s remaining emissions or determined on the basis of an internal CO₂ pricing scheme. Climate Austria follows the principle of ‘Avoid – Mitigate – contribute’ and supports the financing of high-quality climate mitigation projects in Austria and worldwide. In this way, companies make an additional contribution to global climate action beyond their own value chain.

First-hand insights into how we work:
We interviewed our Climate Austria Director, Wolfgang Diernhofer, to discuss our work, quality standards, and projects.

Click here for the full interview

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