What is 'Net Zero', anyway? A short history of a monumental concept

The G7 leaders recently committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, with the Albanese government in Australia introducing legislation to create a Net Zero Economy Authority to drive investment in clean energy. The concept of net zero, aiming to balance carbon emissions with carbon sinks, emerged from early climate negotiations in the 1990s. It gained traction in the late 2000s as a metric for assessing mitigation efforts and became a key goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, challenges remain in ensuring fairness and equity between developed and developing nations, and in avoiding greenwashing by corporations.