Fair guidance in ratcheting up the national net-zero emission ambitions

National net-zero pledges have brought the Paris Agreement temperature target within reach, yet they still need a boost. Current evaluations and analyses of net-zero targets have fallen short in equity. We use a transparent and multidimensional approach to go beyond the long-standing dispute of detailed equity definitions and assess the Paris Agreement compatibility of national net-zero targets from a general equity perspective. We use the allowed national emissions as a reference to incentivize countries to increase their targets. If countries follow a linearly increasing ambition level of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to net-zero commitments and then remain on this path, global warming will be limited to about 1.8 °C (high NDCs) or -1.9 °C (low NDCs) by 2100. Our work provides essential information for reviewing and advancing net-zero commitments and promoting the convergence of national actions towards the 1.5 °C goal.