Just who is driving the Net Zero agenda? Or who was driving the Net Zero agenda and are they still doing so now? Come to think of it, what’s Net Zero all about anyhow? With Tory party leader Kemi Badenoch coming out this week with a statement saying that the 2050 Net Zero target was unrealistic, unattainable, and would beggar the country, perhaps it’s worth looking back to when it all started and what’s happened since. Especially as we’re almost half-way to 2050 from the initial date the original climate bill was enacted.
The UK Climate Change Bill 2008 - Leading the Way
Climate change rhetoric has been around for a very long time. Environmental organisations like Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace were campaigning as early as the late 1980s but it took the UK some 20 years to act, a climate change bill being announced in the 2006 Queen’s Speech. It was enacted into law in 2008 under the stewardship of Labour Prime Minister Gorden Brown. In the interim there were a wide range of international summits and protocols agreed between, to use the current zeitgeist term, ‘a coalition of the willing’.
Actually, the UK was one of the early movers and actors on climate change. It wasn’t until the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009 that any sort of global accord was reached. Then it took until 2016 before discussion and international diplomacy concluded the Paris Agreement. Although Donald Trump withdrew America in 2020 and may do so again.
Theresa May, 2019 and 2050
The Paris agreement ended as an international pact enshrining ‘Net Zero’ by 2050. It was adopted into UK law, this time by a Conservative PM, Theresa May, in 2019. So far, we’ve been doing OK – important as in 2021 the UK was the 8th largest culprit in terms of emissions. To be fair, this century we’ve been steadily decarbonising at a progressive rate.
Kemi Badenoch was an MP in 2019 when the 2050 date was nodded through in Parliament without a debate. But now she claims that 2050 will be ‘impossible’, adding that even if we hit Net Zero at home there will not be global Net Zero as other countries are not following the UK so effectively. This isn’t entirely right – as now some 195 countries are committed to the cause. Overall, the world now invests almost twice as much in clean energy as it does in fossil fuels.
What’s Your Net Zero Plan, Sir Keir?
There is a running, revolving, Net Zero plan in the UK that is refreshed every 5 years. The Conservative Government published a 3,000-page document in 2021. Sir Keir Starmer’s administration will publish his in Spring 2026. But, as things stand, in something of a volte face that completely blindsided her party, Badenoch has taken Net Zero off the table when it comes to official Tory policy moving forward. An analysis of her rhetoric however shows little evidence for her arguments. Indeed, analysis by the London School of Economics suggests that contrary to her claims the Net Zero would bankrupt the UK, by 2040 Net Zero plans will be saving the country money. Perhaps Kemi changes her colours like a chameleon to suit the need to keep a relevant grip on the ‘news cycle’.
Whose Responsibility Is It Anyway?
Whilst Governments around the world are taking the lead on Net Zero, achieving the right outcomes will very much rely on individual homes and families ‘signing up’ for the changes required. The problem with change is that it is always painful. Gas appliances will need to be ripped out and replaced by new technologies. The Government has been heavily promoting heat pumps as a replacement – but an estimated 50% of properties in the UK are simply not suitable for this approach. In addition, a significant proportion of the properties where heat pumps could work will not want to afford the initial investment and running costs.
The UK will need to find other, cheaper alternatives. As such, when it comes to changing colours in the great Net Zero debate the only colour in town to cut emissions and deliver Net Zero on brief, on time and on budget, will be red.
Infra-Red heating that is.