The New Faces of GWP*: Temperature neutrality and no additional warming
Briefing paper: The New Faces of GWP*
Our latest briefing paper, *The New Faces of GWP*, revisits the debate around this controversial metric and how it’s being used to distort progress on methane. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has explicitly rejected GWP*, and now we see more and more scientists worldwide doing the same.
In 2023, our report Seeing Stars exposed how GWP* can allow companies and countries to claim they are ‘climate neutral’ or even ‘cooling the planet’ while continuing to emit huge amounts of methane. This new briefing updates that research with fresh findings from freedom of information requests across Ireland, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Europe and Northern Ireland, looking at the state-of-play in the lead up to COP30.
It unpacks the new terminology emerging around the metric — from ‘no additional warming’ to ‘temperature neutrality’, being used to obscure the reality behind the use of the metric. The briefing paper also examines how countries’ use of GWP* translates into actual on-the-ground emissions.
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