A bride who stitched her own mouth to the climate crisis

Back in 2021, a priest in the UK staged a protest by sewing his mouth shut with thread to protest the media’s silence on the climate crisis. The priest had his mouth stitched shut and held a silent protest with a paper sign outside the front door of the company’s London office that day. He says he did it to bring attention to the seriousness of the climate crisis.

In June 2023, a foreigner climbed the Lotte World Tower, a skyscraper in Songpa-gu, Seoul, to raise awareness about climate change. Across the globe, environmentalists and activists have been performing and protesting to raise awareness of the climate crisis.

What is carbon neutral?

Carbon neutrality is about reducing carbon emissions, removing and absorbing carbon from the atmosphere, offsetting net emissions to zero. The international community refers to carbon neutrality as net-zero (emissions – absorptions = 0) because it results in zero net emissions.

This January, temperatures in one part of Australia hit 50.7 degrees, and European and African countries are reportedly experiencing a spike in heat stroke deaths as temperatures soar above 40 degrees. Climate experts believe that the main cause of these extreme weather events is the increase in greenhouse gases, and that only reducing greenhouse gas emissions will prevent climate catastrophe.

Risk of 2 degrees of warming, net-zero carbon in 2050.

It has been shown that a global temperature increase of more than 2 degrees Celsius will cause natural disasters that are beyond the capabilities of the average human, such as heat waves, and that limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius will significantly reduce the risk of climate change compared to 2 degrees Celsius. South Korea, where manufacturing is at the center of the industrial structure, is also experiencing a warming trend, with the average temperature rising by a whopping 1.4℃ in the last 30 years. In fact, in recent years, we’ve seen a number of climate anomalies in our own country, including heavy rainfall, out-of-season plant growth, and the polarization of winter mosquitoes due to warm winter temperatures.

This calls for a transition to a carbon-neutral society with net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The international community, including not only Korea but also major developed countries such as the European Union and the United States, is implementing various policies, regulations, and campaigns to achieve carbon neutrality (net-zero) by 2050.

Should companies invest in carbon neutrality?

Of course, getting to zero emissions is still a challenge for companies. But now we’re being forced, even if involuntarily and semi-forced, to invest in going net-zero. With the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) led by the European Union and the U.S. administration of President Joe Biden, preparing to be carbon neutral has become essential for companies that import and export to and from the European Union.

The transition period for the Carbon Border Adjustment Scheme began in October 2023, and on December 18, 2023, the United Kingdom announced that it will also introduce a carbon border tax, meaning that many major countries around the world will be implementing these government-led environmental schemes in the coming years. Apple has also announced its intention to join the RE100, an international campaign to become carbon neutral on a voluntary basis outside of government-led schemes, so that companies associated with these global companies can also semi-compulsorily reduce their carbon footprint.We’re in a situation where we need to practice cow neutrality.

However, due to lack of personnel, budget, and information, many small and medium-sized enterprises in Korea are unable to build a systematic large-scale system and are limited to one-off consulting that takes at least 3 to 6 months whenever a request is made.

PlanESG helps organizations measure and manage their carbon emissions and provides a comprehensive solution to address the climate crisis.
Collect data → Build a greenhouse gas inventory → Calculate carbon emissions → Create a report
We can do it all, and we can also help you with meeting materials
explanation of work processes, preparation and verification of activity materials
for meeting materials, preparation of activity materials, and verification, all at once withPlanESG.

This article concludes with a best practice example from a real PlanESG client, Company N, who utilized PlanESG to respond to a carbon neutrality request from an overseas contractor and completed the report in just one day(read the article here). In the next article, we will look at the carbon neutralization case of a domestic company and discuss the actions, steps, etc. that should be taken in our company.