Net-Zero Emissions: Winning Strategy or Destined for Failure? Net-zero emissions — balancing emissions by absorbing equivalent amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere — is the defining approach of international climate efforts. But some scientists are arguing that this strategy simply allows the perpetuation of the status quo and is certain to fail. Net zero. Those two words have become the near-universal language for policymakers intent on sealing a deal at the UN climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland in November. But are they the key to fulfilling the promises to hold warming to 1.5 degrees made at a similar climate summit in Paris six years ago, or, as some scientists and activists are now saying, are they a dangerous delusion to which climate scientists have become complicit?