BCG Carbon Neutral Management Practice - Reading #184

Hello everyone, thank you as always for your support!
Today, I will be writing about one of the pillars of my posts,"Books" and "Reading".

I would like to write about my favorite books while adhering to the personal rules I wrote in my self-introduction, so thank you for your support!

This time, it is about management.
Specifically, management that addresses climate change and considers the global environment.

For the header, I used a work byPopit-san!
Thank you very much!!

Table of Contents

Basic Information

Boston Consulting Group (Author)
Nikkei BP Publishing
November 22, 2021, First Edition

Total 294 pages
Reading duration: 5 days

I also purchased this book fromValue Books!!

How I came across this book

I have a reasonably strong interest in things like climate change.
However, I feel that a characteristic of this genre is that the more you delve into the details, the more scientific the discussion becomes.
Honestly, when that happens, I inevitably want to distance myself from it, and I have a sense of weakness toward it.
In short, I am interested, but I have a strong feeling that it is difficult and I cannot keep up with the understanding.

Therefore, since the title suggested that I could understand these issues from the perspective of corporate management, I decided to read it as a form of study related to my work.

What I consider to be the essence of this book

"Carbon Neutral" and "Decarbonization"have become urgent, immediate issues, and as symbolized byglobal warming, I believe many people have come to recognize this as they are now able to understand it as a personal issue through their own skin.

Based on that current situation, the book is intended to deepen understanding of this complex phenomenon and the widely discussed solutions, and to enableproactive challenges.
It suggests that we need to return to three simple questions.

This book proceeds according to these three questions.

What I felt

Military as a source of greenhouse gas emissions

While this book organizes points such as:
・What are the main sources of emissions,
・How can those emission sources be reduced,from the perspective of companies and industries, there is one thing I thought about because it is not mentioned at all in this book.

“Wait, what about the military?”

I personally had the thought that if the military sector were eliminated, we would move significantly toward a decarbonized world. When I looked into it, I found research estimating that military-related activities account for anywhere from a few percent to nearly 10% of total global greenhouse gas emissions.

However, this is strictly at the level of “one theory.”
Apparently, in international greenhouse gas reporting such as the Paris Agreement,emissions from military activities are “optional.”In other words, it is a system where it is
entirely up to each countrywhether or not they disclose the details.

What I learned this time is the concept of“life cycle”for CO2.
In short, it isevaluating how much CO2 (carbon dioxide) is emitted throughout the entire life cycle of a product or service.

Conventional CO2 emission calculations almost always focus on specific stages, such as production at a factory or the use of a product.
Naturally, I only had this mindset as well.

However, in the CO2 life cycle, CO2 emitted at all of the following stages is totaled and evaluated.

1. Raw material procurement (mining, cultivation, etc.): CO2 emitted when mining or cultivating raw materials for products

2. Manufacturing/Processing (production at factories): CO2 emitted when manufacturing or processing products at factories

3. Transportation/Distribution (product transport): CO2 emitted during transport until the product reaches the consumer

4. Use (product utilization): CO2 emitted when actually using the product (e.g., driving a car, using home appliances, etc.)

5. Disposal/Recycling (product disposal): CO2 emitted when disposing of or recycling products

Based on this way of thinking, war-related activities where the military is utilized involve:

• Combat operations themselves consuming massive amounts of fuel

• Furthermore, massive CO2 emissions due to the destruction of cities and infrastructure

• A chain reaction leading to environmental destruction (forest fires, bombing of oil facilities, chemical spills)

• Additional fuel consumption due to post-war reconstruction, refugee support, etc.

Given this, one could say the impact is immeasurable, almost doubling at every turn, but the reality seems to be that people “do not try to measure it” and “have no obligation to do so.”

Nevertheless, as a practical matter, the military is treated as a“sanctuary”in international negotiations, and has been avoided as a target for reduction.
It is clear that a drastic“redefinition of security”in the sense of“linking disarmament with climate measures”from such a situation will be extremely difficult.
Or rather, it is frustrating that the reality makes one want to call it impossible.

Climate Tipping Points

While this is not explicitly written in this book, I have heard of it before, and while researching various things, I understood that it is implicitlya premise of this book.

It is believed that once the climate system crosses a certain threshold, self-reinforcing changes begin, and
“even if humans reduce CO2, it cannot be stopped = it becomes irreversible.”
That line (threshold) is expressed by the Earth's average temperature rise, and phenomena that occur as a result are anticipated.
These are all comparisons to pre-industrial times.
By the way, it is said that it has currently risen by
1.2°C.

[Around 1.0°C]
・Loss of most coral reefs ~ Therefore, it is already becoming serious

[Around 1.5°C]
・Start of Greenland ice sheet melting ~ Once it begins, it self-accelerates, potentially leading to a 7m sea level rise
・Melting of Arctic permafrost ~ Methane release further accelerates global warming

[Around 2.0°C]
・Collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet ~ Sea level rise on the scale of several meters
・Collapse of the Amazon rainforest ~ Forest turns into grassland, shifting from a CO₂ sink to a source

[Around 3.0°C]
・Arctic sea ice-free summers become the norm ~ Sunlight reflection decreases, further promoting global warming

[Around 4.0°C]
・Risk of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) shutdown ~ The North Atlantic circulation stops, causing major climate shifts in Europe, Africa, and South America

Because there is concern that if these multiple tipping points chain together, the entire global climate system will change abruptly and unfold in a "domino effect," it seems that"keeping it within 1.5°C" has become the international consensus.

What is very important here is that regarding climate change, it is already an "irreversible" situation in the sense that there is no "going back". In other words,
・If you ask if we can return to the pre-industrial revolution situation, we cannot
・If you ask if we can return to the situation before global warming became a noise, we cannot
That is the current reality.

However, once we enter the above-mentioned tipping points, no matter how much we reduce greenhouse gases, it will become a situation that "cannot be stopped."
I felt that we must be strongly conscious of this.
In other words,
"at what stage to stabilize"
(for example, whether to stop at +1.5°C or go up to +4°C) is still up to human action, and we need to accept that the reality now is "how much we can suppress the magnitude of the damage."

In conclusion (summary)

The global consensus is,

That is likely it.

To that end, what will each country do?
That is, in other words, directly linked to what will each of us do?
.

Since the volume of text has already become quite large, I would like to write about that next time.

Thanks to this book, I was given a huge opportunity to think about the global environment.
At first, I wondered if it would be useful for work, but to think that it would lead me to think about various things and then take my own concrete actions...

So, there is still more I want to write, so I will leave it for next time!
Please stay with me!

Thank you for watching again today!!