Net zero: accentuating the positive

This post was originally published in Energy UK’s essay collection ‘Energy matters: across the economy’.

Climate scepticism is over as a political force in the UK. In its place, we have net zero scepticism.

Climate change is real and frightening, something people have seen and experienced. Net zero is different. It is a policy, and it is easy to argue about policy: go slow, do it differently, be “pragmatic and proportional”.

But politicians tempted to frame net zero as a burden should remember that most of the world has committed to it because it is the best means we have of averting climate breakdown. And averting climate breakdown is more important than any election strategy.

Moreover, our leaders should take pride in the UK’s record on climate change and the energy transition. It is an area where we really can claim to be ‘world leading’. Let’s not move into the second division.

The net zero transition is not some exercise in self sacrifice that comes at the expense of the economy and people’s living standards. Rather, it is the way to restore economic growth, which is why the US, the EU, China and others are investing so heavily in it. The necessary reordering of our economy and energy system will also have tangible benefits for the “ordinary families” so loved by politicians. Done right, it will result in lower bills, warmer homes, cleaner air and good new jobs.

But it must be done right, with a steady eye to fairness. This applies to the “squeezed middle” of low and middle earners who do not have the money to retrofit their homes or fit a heat pump, let alone buy an electric vehicle, but are too well off to get the state support currently available.

It applies to the 4.6 million households in the UK who rent their homes in the private sector. A quarter of them live in fuel poverty. Tenants in the least energy efficient homes pay up to £950 more on energy than the average. That adds up to a lot of people going cold and hungry as they struggle to pay their bills. We need to improve these homes for moral, as well climate reasons. And we really should stop building homes that will need to be retrofitted almost as soon as they are occupied.

And it applies to workers in the oil and gas industry. The transition away from fossil fuels is unstoppable and it needs to happen faster, both to reduce emissions and for the UK economy to reap the economic benefits. But it will be much easier to gain the acquiescence of workers with a stake in the current energy system if the new jobs that replace the old jobs are unionised and well paid.

Finally, our focus on the existential challenge of averting change must not lead us to ignore two other imperatives: restoring nature and adapting to the climate change that is already happening and which will inevitably get worse, even if global warming is limited to 1.5 or two degrees above pre-industrial levels.

Fortunately, we can do many things that have the triple benefit of enriching nature, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing our resilience to climate change. These measures include mass tree planting and rewilding some uplands, at minimal cost to food production; restoring peatlands; and improving and extending wetlands. As with the energy transition, most of the jobs that will created will be outside London and the south east.

Net zero is important. It should be a source of national pride. It will improve people’s lives now, as well as in the future. Of course, it needs to be done fairly and without excessive cost. But we need to hear more of the positives from our political leaders. If net zero is to be a political dividing line, all mainstream politicians should be on the side supporting it.