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“I was in my early 20s when I was really struck to the core with what you’d now call climate-anxiety,” says Claire Snyder, director and founder of Climate Integrity. It wasn’t a feeling easily shoved aside. Claire knew she had to do something, and eventually found her path to action via the youth climate movement. “I had this amazing experience of taking fear, engaging with other people who were hopeful, and turning it into big ideas for impact,” she says.
While buoyed by a bit of youthful naivety, Claire says the experience was integral to understanding how all this climate stuff works. “We did great campaigns and terrible campaigns, but I started to build an understanding of power and systems; what was driving the climate crisis, and what really needed to happen.”
It was also a springboard into a life dedicated to climate campaigning, working with organisations like the Climate Council and Climate200. But when it comes to climate, things rarely stay static, and across 15 years working in a landscape that was constantly shapeshifting, Claire discovered the importance of mercurial thinking. “Things changed so rapidly in this space, you’re always asking yourself: ‘Where are we now? What needs to happen next?’”
From eco-anxiety to Climate Integrity
“In 2024, it’s a very different climate landscape to the one that I first started working in,” she explains. “We now have all these high-level commitments and net zero ambitions from governments and business – but the problem is, when you dig just under the surface, we’re still not on the right track.” So Claire decided to do something about it. She founded environmental advocacy group Climate Integrity to make net zero actually mean something.
And she’s not beating around the bush.
As Climate Integrity highlighted in its inaugural report, Australia’s biggest businesses are lagging way behind global best practice in their net zero pledges. Following the precedent-setting ruling in March that Dutch airline KLM’s sustainability claims were actually just greenwashing, Climate Integrity undertook an expert analysis of Qantas’ marketing materials. What they discovered wasn’t great, especially for those of us who have ever chosen the “offset my flight” option on a plane ticket.
Climate Integrity and the Environmental Defenders Office say that such offset programs are misleading at best and greenwashing at worst. So they lodged a complaint with the ACCC to investigate Australia’s biggest airline over its sustainability and net zero marketing to see if the claims stack up. And boy did that get people’s attention.
While headline-grabbing moments like the Qantas campaign help draw the public’s attention to some dodgy stuff hiding in plain sight, Climate Integrity’s work isn’t about creating a “gotcha moment” for the sake of it. Claire says they are seeking real and tangible outcomes to their advocacy. Specifically, pushing for a strong regulatory framework that ensures all businesses have credible net zero transition plans. In other words, Climate Integrity wants corporations to walk the walk.
So, what does a credible net zero pathway look like?
“Business needs clear standards and guidance around sticky issues and false solutions,” Claire says. While government regulations around this stuff are vital, businesses also need to ensure they are on the right track. Here’s her key steps for building a credible net zero plan in your organisation:
- Use the best science
There is no wriggle room on this one. “Don't use modelling that's put out by your industry,” says Claire.“Go to the most credible sources like IPCC, the IEA – big, heavy-hitting institutions.” These are the most credible scientific bodies working on net zero, so it makes sense to model from the best. “And use some of the standard-setting organisations to improve the credibility of your work,” adds Claire. “For example, get your target verified by the Science Based Targets Initiative.”
- Don’t rely on offsetting
There is no thornier issue than the role of offsets in a credible net zero plan. But, Claire says the evidence is clear. “I would say leadership in this space looks like striving for real zero, not net zero,” says Claire. “And that the bare minimum credibility requirement is to be on a truly science-aligned pathway to net zero and only be using removals beyond that – not claiming any offset.” That means the goal is reductions not compensations.
- Real zero is the only zero
Here’s the crux of it all: “Net zero is actually a slippery phrase that allows for a lot of business as usual and a lot of greenwashing,” says Claire. “The ‘net’ is a loophole that can be exploited to continue to expand fossil fuel emissions, while doing things on the so-called “other side of the ledger”. Hence why focusing on “real zero” is the key to a credible pathway. “The IPCC science and the Paris Agreement actually say we need to rapidly reduce emissions as close to zero as humanly possible, and then for that small residual amount we can ramp up removals,” explains Claire. “So aiming for real zero is ensuring a singular focus on that rapid fossil emissions downward trajectory.”
Ever noticed how much business loves the term net zero? There’s a reason for that. “It’s a scientific concept that has been really exploited by industry, and particularly the fossil fuel sector,” Claire says. “But the fact is, scientific consensus is very clear that reductions and removals are not the same thing, and we can't treat them as the same thing.”
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