Net zero emissions? It’s time to embrace carbon negative

Net zero emissions? It’s time to embrace carbon negative

Net zero emissions? It’s time to embrace carbon negative
The climate crisis is no longer a distant threat, and it is time to challenge conventional thinking. (AFP photo)
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Despite the big push toward net zero, greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere are skyrocketing. The climate crisis is no longer a distant threat, and it is time to challenge conventional thinking.

Net-negative emissions are the answer — and boards of directors across all industries and businesses must spearhead the movement.

The combustion of fossil fuels is increasing year on year. Likewise, the construction of data centers is intensifying, resulting in further carbon emissions.

At the end of last year, a report predicted that the global data-center industry would emit 2.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030, making a shift toward net negative even more essential.

While net-zero initiatives balance the levels of greenhouse gases, net negative — also known as carbon negative — seeks to actively remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, reducing them to below the levels organizations produce.

Governments are responsible for big-picture legislation, targets, and pan-sector initiatives to help firms get there. But at a time when governments are delaying net-zero targets and scrapping environmental bills, businesses must take responsibility for the push to net negative.

I believe this systemic change has to come from the top.

Yes, directors have a moral obligation to reverse their climate impact. But more than this, climate change poses a systemic risk to all businesses. Climate-related events are disrupting supply chains, operations, and market demand — which will negatively impact bottom lines.

For example, Hurricane Ian caused a 75 percent drop in shipments in the US, while in India, flooding in the Chennai region forced many manufacturing plants to close.

Business leaders have two choices: do nothing and incur the massive costs climate disruption will cause, or act now by making emissions reduction a strategic priority.

After all, boards have one responsibility — to ensure the long-term sustainability and resilience of their organizations. That is why I am urging boards to go further than net zero.

Some companies have caught on. Microsoft recently pledged to become carbon negative by 2030, with even bolder plans to remove all of the carbon the company has ever emitted by 2050.

Of course, this is a huge operational undertaking. That is why board members must challenge assumptions, push for more ambitious targets, ask tough questions, and embrace transformative solutions.

Board-level executives must drive net-negative schemes in their businesses starting today — not wait for mandates from governments.

Scott Lane

Boards should start by interrogating their companies’ policies on carbon offsetting. For all its usefulness in the short term, carbon offsetting is not an adequate replacement for genuine emission reduction. Instead, business operations need to decarbonize.

Organizations can make significant progress by addressing “scope three” emissions — indirect emissions that occur across an organization’s value chain, such as emissions from commuting, international business trips, or the end-of-life stage of sold goods.

For example, IKEA plans to decrease its emissions by switching to 100 percent renewable energy across its value chain by 2030.

Scope three emissions are often the largest category of emissions and fall outside the direct control or regulatory frameworks of businesses, making them especially tricky to tackle.

Boards should demonstrate transparency and accountability by disclosing these emission figures and ensuring that senior management teams have robust strategies to reduce them through tangible measures such as cycle-to-work schemes.

Boards must also forge relationships with competitors, as well as with key stakeholders such as unions, suppliers, and government bodies. This enables climate solutions to be developed and implemented more quickly and at greater scale.

Beyond industry relationships, boards must engage with policymakers. Executives should advocate for laws that support ambitious climate policies, helping to shape measures on carbon pricing, renewable energy, and green technology.

While scope three emissions are the priority, boards also have the power to implement large-scale nature-based projects across wetlands, forests, and oceans. Reforestation projects and sustainable land management will be essential to ensure that these natural ecosystems can continue to absorb CO2 emissions.

Beyond carbon initiatives, businesses need to adopt bold circular-economy principles. Boards should challenge management to incorporate circularity into their business models, from product design to waste management.

Middle East-based waste management firm Averda, for example, works with local governments to boost recycling rates and repurpose solid waste for energy generation. This shows how firms can use deep sector knowledge to promote circularity among consumers too.

Board-level executives must drive net-negative schemes in their businesses starting today — not wait for mandates from governments. The climate crisis is intensifying, and the knock-on implications for business operations will be enormous.

By challenging conventional thinking and demanding ambitious ideas, boards have the chance to play a key role in securing a prosperous, sustainable future.

Scott Lane is CEO and founder of Speeki, an ESG and sustainability reporting and management partner to large corporates

 

Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point of view

Belgium returns 2,000-year-old sarcophagus to Egypt

Belgium returns 2,000-year-old sarcophagus to Egypt
Updated 18 sec ago

Belgium returns 2,000-year-old sarcophagus to Egypt

Belgium returns 2,000-year-old sarcophagus to Egypt
  • Prosecutors said the artefact — along with a piece of an ancient wooden beard — was presented to the Egyptian ambassador at a ceremony in the Belgian capital.

BRUSSELS: Belgian authorities on Friday said they had handed over a roughly 2,000-year-old sarcophagus to Egypt, a decade after it was seized by police in Brussels.
Prosecutors said the artefact — along with a piece of an ancient wooden beard — was presented to the Egyptian ambassador at a ceremony in the Belgian capital.
“After 10 years of investigation and proceedings, it is a true act of justice to return to its country of origin an item that was misappropriated from its heritage,” said Julien Moinil, the Brussels public prosecutor.
The artefacts were seized by Belgian police in 2015 after Interpol issued a notice following a request from a court in Egypt, prosecutors said.
They were housed in the meantime at the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels.
A statement said that the wooden sarcophagus, which dates back to the Ptolemaic period between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, “undoubtedly belonged to a member of Egyptian high society.”
“The choice of materials and the meticulous execution bear witness to exceptional craftsmanship,” it said.
It added that hieroglyphics on the sarcophagus made it possible to identify the former occupant as a man called Pa-di-Hor-pa-khered and that he was portrayed as having transformed into Osiris, god of the underworld.


Afghan cattle farmers fear for future and flock as Pakistan deportation threat looms

Afghan cattle farmers fear for future and flock as Pakistan deportation threat looms
Updated 29 sec ago

Afghan cattle farmers fear for future and flock as Pakistan deportation threat looms

Afghan cattle farmers fear for future and flock as Pakistan deportation threat looms
  • Kuchi tribe members, who trace their origins to neighboring Afghanistan, frequently migrated to Pakistan to raise livestock
  • They fear repatriation as Pakistan has not yet extended June 30 deadline for Afghan Proof of Registration card-holders to leave

ISLAMABAD: Saeed Khan tapped his wooden staff rhythmically as he guided over two dozen cattle and sheep into a livestock enclosure bound by mud and fencing fashioned out of thorny branches. The soft sound of hooves over the dusty ground could be heard as Khan went about his work, with the occasional sound of bleats filling the air.

Khan, 48, is a member of the nomadic Kuchi tribe that traces its origins to Afghanistan. The Kuchis depend on animals for their livelihood and their movements historically were determined by the weather and the availability of good pastures.

Khan, whose ancestors used to come to Pakistan only during the winters and would return to the high-altitude pastures of Afghanistan during summers, made Pakistan his permanent home in the ‘80s, but he now fears for the future, with

Islamabad’s June 30 deadline for Afghan Proof of Registration (PoR) card holders to leave the country over by almost two weeks.

“At first, there wasn’t any card issue,” Khan told Arab News, minding his flock in Islamabad. “Our people didn’t know much about it. It’s only now that the problem has come up, that we’ve realized.”

Children from the Afghan Kuchi community play outside their makeshift homes on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 1, 2025. (AN)

The problem Khan referred to is a controversial deportation drive that Pakistan launched in 2023 against what it described as “illegal foreigners,” mostly Afghans, in the country. Islamabad this year said it wanted 3 million Afghans to leave the country, including 1.4 million people with PoR cards and some 800,000 with Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC).

According to data from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), more than 900,000 Afghans have left Pakistan since the expulsion drive began. While Pakistan deported thousands of ACC holders, the government said those with PoR cards could stay until June 30.

The Pakistan government cites economic stress and security concerns as reasons to push ahead with the expulsion drive, while human rights advocates say the move threatens people who have lived in Pakistan for decades and contributed significantly to its informal economy and urban infrastructure.

The Kuchi nomads would spend the winters in the Indus Valley region or parts of southern Afghanistan and Balochistan before heading for the Hindu Kush mountains in the summer each year, according to Professor Thomas Barfield, president of the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies and a leading anthropologist on Afghan culture at Boston University. Presently, they number around a million in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Khan, after settling in Pakistan, has raised animals not only to sell them for the Eid Al-Adha sacrifice, when cattle are in high demand, but also for exports.

“I do both cattle and sheep [farming],” Khan explained. “Especially Turkish sheep for sacrifice. [But] most of our animals go to factories, one in Raiwind Lahore, one in Kasur, one in Kamoke, then they’re exported abroad.”

Cattle return to their shelter at a livestock enclosure on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 1, 2025. (AN)

There are many mud shelters near Khan’s home along the Qur’ang river in Islamabad that now lie abandoned. They were once inhabited by Kuchi families who had ACCs but were expelled by Pakistani authorities.

The empty shelters serve as a stark reminder for Khan and other PoR card-holders such as his nephew, Mohammad Ullah, of what the future may bring.

“This place where they used to live, they left it as they were,” Ullah told Arab News, pointing to the empty huts.

Some ACC holders remain, concealing their identity out of fear of deportation, but the majority of Kuchis here holds PoR cards. Some of the Kuchis were left out when they were being registered as they were away herding animals in remote areas.

A Kuchi person, who spoke to Arab News on condition of anonymity, said his entire family had PoR cards except for him.

“The thing is, we have six children here. If I go to Afghanistan, my children will stay here, right?” he asked. “So, what will I do there, and what will they do here?”

An ACC cardholder from the Afghan Kuchi tribe looks at Turkish sheep inside his livestock enclosure in Islamabad, Pakistan, on May 1, 2025. (AN)

Khan also worries about his livestock and says he would have to sell them all if Pakistani authorities forced him to leave.

“Because they won’t let us take it across the border [to Afghanistan],” he said, bearing a tensed look on his face.


Sand and dust storms affect about 330 million people in over 150 countries, UN agency says

Sand and dust storms affect about 330 million people in over 150 countries, UN agency says
Updated 8 min 8 sec ago

Sand and dust storms affect about 330 million people in over 150 countries, UN agency says

Sand and dust storms affect about 330 million people in over 150 countries, UN agency says
  • More than 80 percent of the world’s dust comes from the deserts in North Africa and the Middle East
  • About 2 billion tons of dust are emitted yearly, equivalent to 300 Great Pyramids of Giza

UNITED NATIONS: Sand and dust storms affect about 330 million people in over 150 countries and are taking an increasing toll on health, economies and the environment, the UN World Meteorological Organization says.

“About 2 billion tons of dust are emitted yearly, equivalent to 300 Great Pyramids of Giza” in Egypt, the organization’s UN representative, Laura Paterson, told the General Assembly.

More than 80 percent of the world’s dust comes from the deserts in North Africa and the Middle East, she said, but it has a global impact because the particles can travel hundreds and even thousands of kilometers (miles) across continents and oceans.

The General Assembly was marking the International Day of Combating Sand and Dust Storms on Saturday and its designation of 2025 to 2034 as the UN decade on combating sand and dust storms.

Assembly President Philemon Yang said the storms “are fast becoming one of the most overlooked yet far-reaching global challenges of our time.”

“They are driven by climate change, land degradation and unsustainable practices,” he said.

Yang, in a speech Thursday that was read by an assembly vice president, said airborne particles from sand and dust storms contribute to 7 million premature deaths every year. He said they trigger respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and reduce crop yields by up to 25 percent, causing hunger and migration.

Undersecretary-General Rola Dashti, head of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, told the assembly the storms’ economic costs are “staggering.”

In the Middle East and North Africa, the annual cost of dealing with dust and sandstorms is $150 billion, roughly 2.5 percent of GDP, she said.

“This spring alone, the Arab region experienced acute disruption,” Dashti said, citing severe storms in Iraq that overwhelmed hospitals with respiratory cases and storms in Kuwait and Iran that forced schools and offices to close.

Dust from the Sahara Desert in Africa has reached as far as the Caribbean and Florida, she said.

Dashti, who also co-chairs the UN Coalition on Combating Sand and Dust Storms, said over 20 UN and international agencies are working to unite efforts on early warning systems for storms and to deal with other issues, including health and financing.

She urged all countries to put sand and dust storms into global and national agendas.

“From land restoration and sustainable agriculture to integrated early warning systems, we have the tools to act,” Dashti said. “What we need now is collective determination and financing to bring these solutions to scale.”


Wasim Akram hails ‘modern-day great’ Starc on 100-Test milestone

Wasim Akram hails ‘modern-day great’ Starc on 100-Test milestone
Updated 38 min 27 sec ago

Wasim Akram hails ‘modern-day great’ Starc on 100-Test milestone

Wasim Akram hails ‘modern-day great’ Starc on 100-Test milestone
  • Mitchell Starc becomes the 83rd player and 16th Australian to play 100 Tests
  • The 35-year-old is only the second Australian fast bowler after Glenn McGrath

KARACHI: Pakistan fast bowling legend Wasim Akram on Saturday hailed Australia’s Mitchell Starc as a “modern-day great” for reaching 100 Test appearances.

Starc, who draws comparisons with fellow left-arm quick Akram, will reach the milestone later Saturday when the third Test against the West Indies begins in Jamaica.

“It is a big deal in this day and age to reach 100 Tests, congratulations to Starc,” Akram told AFP.

“That shows the quality and resolve of the man.”

The 35-year-old becomes the 83rd player and 16th Australian to play 100 Tests, and only the second Australian fast bowler after Glenn McGrath.

“To play 100 Tests shows how consistent Starc has been and also shows where his priorities lie — that is to play red-ball cricket,” said Akram.

“He has also played Twenty20 and league cricket but his career in Test cricket is way ahead and to me he is a modern-day great.”

Starc stands on 395 Test wickets, so has the tantalising prospect of taking his landmark 400th wicket during his 100th Test. His strike rate is remarkably similar to Akram, who retired in 2002 after taking 414 wickets in 104 Tests.

Both players, said Akram, had suffered injuries to “every joint, every part of the body” during their careers.

“People often compare us but we have played in different eras,” said Akram.

“He’s got the pace, he’s got the swing and he’s bowling very intelligently to the new batsman, especially with the new ball.”
 


28 Palestinians including children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza

28 Palestinians including children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza
Updated 12 July 2025

28 Palestinians including children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza

28 Palestinians including children killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza
  • Israeli military says that over the past 48 hours, troops struck approximately 250 targets in the Gaza Strip

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israeli airstrikes killed at least 28 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including four children, hospital officials said Saturday.

The children and two women were among at least 13 people who were killed in Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, after Israeli airstrikes pounded the area starting late Friday, officials in Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Hospital said. Another four people were killed in strikes near a fuel station, and 15 others died in Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, according to Nasser Hospital.

The Israeli military said in a statement that over the past 48 hours, troops struck approximately 250 targets in the Gaza Strip, including militants, booby-trapped structures, weapons storage facilities, anti-tank missile launch posts, sniper posts, tunnels and additional Hamas infrastructure sites. The military did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment on the civilian deaths.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in their Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and abducted 251. They still hold 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s offensive has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas-run government, doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

US President Donald Trump has said that he is closing in on another ceasefire agreement that would see more hostages released and potentially wind down the war. But after two days of talks this week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there were no signs of a breakthrough.