Climate Expert: Net Zero Strategy (Vol 5)

The Climate Expert is a five-volume primer series for young professionals working in climate, sustainability, and ESG. Each volume covers one region of the field in plain language: how it works, where it came from, what the law says, and what a careful professional should doubt. The series is published by Climate Expert Publication, an editorial collective committed to unbiased, knowledge-based information for students, young professionals, and everyone.

This is the fifth volume. Net Zero Strategy is the strategy layer - what an organisation actually does once its emissions are measured and disclosed. If you set targets, build transition plans, buy carbon credits, decarbonise a supply chain, or manage financed emissions, this book explains how to do each credibly at a moment when the voluntary-pledge ecosystem and the binding-compliance regime are pulling in opposite directions.

Inside this volume:

• Transition planning frameworks in force: the TPT Disclosure Framework, IFRS S2's strategy and transition pillar, ESRS E1-1's transition plan requirement, and GFANZ guidance for financial institutions after the 2024 restructure
• SBTi validation mechanics - what the Corporate Net-Zero Standard V1.3 requires, how the April 2024 board statement triggered a staff revolt, what the November 2024 reversal restored, and what V2.0's "focused and flexible" Scope 3 framework proposes for targets mandatory from 1 January 2028
• Compliance carbon markets as binding financial obligations
• Financed emissions and the financial-institution layer: PCAF methodology, the NZAOA Target-Setting Protocol, and what target-setting looks like for a bank in 2026 without a functioning alliance
• Supply-chain decarbonisation and Scope 3 engagement: GHG Protocol Category 15 (investments), Category 11 (use of sold products), and the practical limit of what value-chain engagement can achieve under time-bound SBTi obligations
• Just transition and what the term means in practice

The five volumes of The Climate Expert:

• Volume I: Foundations
• Volume II: Climate Risk
• Volume III: ESG Reporting and Disclosure
• Volume IV: Climate Law and Policy
• Volume V: Net Zero Strategy (this book)