Since the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), reactions have been mixed, with both praise for the agreements and the progress made, and disappointment that necessary commitments to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees were not attained.

To encourage momentum following the forum, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the importance of continual engagement, noting that “countries must revisit their national climate plans and policies, not every five years but every year, if commitments fall short by the end of COP26.”

Guterres also had a warning about target setting when he said, “There is a deficit of credibility and a surplus of confusion over emissions reductions and net-zero targets, with different meanings and different metrics.”

This debate over meanings and metrics is ongoing in the infrastructure sector, as companies rush to set global greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets that are increasingly becoming requi