Welcome to the Working Group members

The Climate Champions and the Expert Peer Review Group have now confirmed the individuals who will be contributing to the 2022 Criteria Consultation through selected Working Groups.
These experts, scientists, academics and practitioners from around the world will come together to help continue driving upward convergence around best practice in climate action. We look forward to the rich discussions on each topic over the course of the next two months, and we will continue to publish updates on a regular basis on these discussions.

Net zero finance and disclosure of climate-related risks

Co-Chairs: Jes Andrews; Minyoung Shin

Working group members: Puninda Thind; Patrick McCully; Jane Thostrup Jagd; Roberta Pierfederici; Darius Nassiry; Eduardo Lopez; Josie Murdoch; Barbara Davidson; Dr. Nicole Röttmer; Peter Young; Yukari Takamura; Brendan Curran; Lisa Benjamin; Nate Aden; Sue Reid; Miguel Chavarria; Alex Michie

Supported by: Tessa Vincent

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Scope 3, boundaries & historical emissions

Co-Chairs: Pernilla Bergmark; Kaya Axelsson

Working group members: Andreas Hoepner; Lydia Elliott; Will Evison; Solitaire Townsend; Jonathan Wise; Dr. Gavin Hayman; Peter Boyd; Melanie Wilneder; Inder Poonaji; Emma Watson; Nasmir Jrondi; Luis Davila

Supported by: Eugenia Sanchez

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Nature, land use & deforestation

Co-Chairs: Precious Phiri; Marco Daldoss Pirri

Working group members: Jessica Smith; Luke Pritchard; Morgan Gillespy; Sagarika Chatterjee; Maria Jose Lopez Ortiz; Jillene Belopolsky; Samir Ibrahim; Musa Mussa Wawuyo; Nathalie Walker; Harriet Bulkeley; Cinthia Soto; Joseph Doyle; Karen Watts

Supported by: Jocelyn Perry

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Offsetting, Carbon removals and responsible communication of claims

Co-Chairs: Mark Kenber, Judy Ndichu

Working group members: Barbara Haya; Miguel Alejandro Naranjo Gonzalez; Guilherme J. S. Leal; Scarlett Benson; Catalina Cecchi; Paul DeNoon; Luke Pritchard; Simon Messenger; Sadie Frank; Gilles Dufrasne; Pedro Soares; Alexandra Deprez; Derik Broekhoff; Kelley Kizzier; Felix Kalaba; Albert Arhin; Karen Watts; Gabrielle Walker

Supported by: Ria Aiyer

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Fair share, equity & justice

Co-Chairs: Nehmat Kaur; Joshua Amponsem

Working group members: Elizabeth Wangeci Chege; Kate Cullen; Lilian Motaroki; Sam Bickersteth; Sindra Sharma; Alice Anders; Clémence Billard Schachter; Nick Robins; Juliana Velez; Patricia Hudson

Supported by: Cynthia Mbuthia

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Transition plans & immediate action

Co-Chairs: Catharina Hillenbrand von der Neyen; Johan Falk

Working group members: Emma Jenkins; Timothy Carter; Victoria Matusevich; Jenny Ahlen; Beata Bienkowska; Ned Shell; Dan Dowling; Rahnuma Chowdhury; Romain Poivet; Emma Morton; Alice de Moraes Amorim Vogas; Bea Natzler; Sara Law; Livia Rossi; Winnie Khaemba

Supported by: Fernanda Pérez Villarreal

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Policy, advocacy & engagement

Co-Chairs: Manjyot Ahluwalia; Amir Sokolowski

Working group members: Hala S. Murad; Cathy Yitong Li; Kit Vaughan; Marine Pouget; Will Aitchison; Sylvie Wabbes; Candice Howarth; Jennifer M. Silvi; Dominic Gogol; Robert Hoglund; Sahana Kaur; Paul Smith; Xiye Bastida; Ned Shell

Supported by: Juhi Kore

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Fossil Fuel transition and non-CO2 Gases

Co-Chairs: Kavita Srinivasan; Madhura Joshi

Working group members: Molly Walton; Oyku Senlen Gundogan; Mark Campanale; Fabiola Schneider; Ronan Hodge; Natalie Orentlicher; Joachim Kattrup; Paasha Mahdavi; Martín Paladini; Marcelo Mena; Eleni Michalopouloul; Cesar Gamboa; Marcela Jaramillo

Supported by: Evan Guy

The Process

To help accelerate meaningful progress towards halving global emissions by 2030, and to ensure the integrity of the campaign, Race to Zero established a minimum floor for robust net zero commitments. This included introducing the Starting Line Criteria (known as the 4 P’s, requiring members to Pledge, Plan, Proceed and Publish, as well as conditions on scope, sinks and credits, and equity and empowerment), as well as publishing an interpretation guide and a lexicon. All members are managed by their relevant Partner initiative to meet these criteria.

Race to Zero has committed to annually strengthen, clarify and update these criteria documents (including the interpretation guide and lexicon (last updated April 2021) – a process supported by the Expert Peer Review Group – to continue driving upward convergence toward the continually evolving frontier of best practice around net zero targets.

Looking ahead

In outlining their plans for the future of the Race to Zero, the Champions committed to consolidating guidance and requirements around the existing 4 ‘P’s and considering introducing new guidance or requirements on a fifth ‘P’ of Persuade.

Over the course of Q1 2022, the Climate Champions and the Expert Peer Review Group, will therefore repeat this process of strengthening and clarifying the minimum criteria, interpretation guides and lexicon, with a particular focus on specific topics requiring further attention.

The consultation process will involve deep-dives on central topics, alongside general, written feedback. The Champions will strive to ensure diversity, transparency and widespread collaboration throughout the process.

Working Groups

Working groups with relevant and diverse expert representatives will be invited to discuss specific topics relating to the strengthening & review of the existing campaign criteria documents. Working groups will be composed of 5-15 individuals, based on these Terms of Reference.

These working groups will meet regularly over the period of 6-8 weeks in order to draft suggestions for strengthening or clarifying the criteria around their particular topic.
Each working group will conclude its work by submitting a template document to the Climate Champions and to the EPRG with suggested amendments to the criteria documents. These suggestions will be published on the Race to Zero website, but will be considered as draft documents rather than approved criteria. The final criteria documents will be published by the Climate Champions at the end of the process.

The working group topics have been identified as priority topics through discussions with the Expert Peer Review Group, Race to Zero Partners and other stakeholders, in large part highlighted through the Public Consultation on the Future of Race to Zero. These topics have been divided into three categories:

Category 1: Discussions on these topics are already underway in various forums. Race to Zero is committed to not duplicating existing or ongoing work, and will therefore engage in these existing conversations to harvest ideas for strengthening the criteria, interpretation guide and lexicon. The discussions of these working groups will therefore be geared towards integrating the content of these discussions into Race to Zero criteria, rather than launching separate, new discussions on these topics.
Category 2: Working Groups in this category will initiate discussions on these topics, with the intention of (i) strengthening / enhancing the existing minimum starting line criteria; (ii) introducing a new criterion as a part of the existing minimum criteria; and / or (iii) deciding whether to establish “leadership” guidance around this topic.
Category 3: Race to Zero will create space for deeper discussions to take place, with a view toward introducing relevant criteria amendments in the future. Working Groups may be engaged for a longer period of time to flesh out these conversations.

• Net zero finance and disclosure of climate-related risks [Category 1]
• Scope 3, boundaries & historical emissions [Category 2]
• Nature, land use & deforestation [Category 2]
• Offsetting, Carbon removals and responsible communication of claims [Category 1]
• Fair share, equity & justice [Category 3]
• Transition plans & immediate action [Category 2]
• Policy, advocacy & engagement [Category 2]
• Fossil Fuel transition [Category 3]

To join a working group, please submit your Expression of interest by Friday 28 January.

For more information, please view: Criteria consultation 2022 Concept note

Support & accountability

Alongside this criteria consultation process, the Climate Champions have commissioned the establishment of an independent compliance mechanism which will aim to target support to Race to Zero members where needed, and help hold them accountable to the commitments based on these strengthened and enhanced criteria.

Opening Session Criteria Consultation 2022

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French

Arabic