We mustn’t scrap net zero – but we need a radically different way to talk about it

We have to stop talking about net zero.

It felt, for a while, like a useful shorthand. But in truth it’s always been, at best, uninspiring. Now it’s a millstone round our necks. A shorthand, for many people, for everything that is bad and wrong with climate politics. It connotes technical policies they don’t understand, dropped on them from politicians and leaders they think are, at best, out of touch and, at worst, downright corrupt. 

And it is a term that is being effectively weaponised by an increasingly vocal opposition who are taking aim at net zero ambitions as part of an costly, ‘elitist’ agenda, a culture war wedge issue, “un-British,” which is disconnected from people’s daily lives, and a burden on households already struggling to cope. 

‘Net Zero’ is easy to attack because it’s a technical term. Few really know what it means. But far, far more importantly nobody knows what ‘net zero’ is for, what it does or why it matters. 

When you talk to British people about what it’s for and why it matters in relation to their lives and their communities, the response you get is very different. 

We’ve spent the last three months trying to get under the skin of what people across the UK really think and feel about climate and nature right now. 

We find that concern for our natural world is a unifier at a time of increasing polarisation. We are a nation of nature lovers, fiercely proud of our national parks and wild landscapes and dismayed by sewage in our rivers and seas. We are increasingly proud of the homegrown clean energy we are building. And we are carrying on doing our bit for the planet, from litter picks to volunteering to recycling. Increasingly, we are also installing solar panels – or we wish we were. 

Lots of loud voices with big media platforms are taking aim at our climate targets, and the clunky terms we use to describe them. Let them. 

What we urgently need to do is start at home. We need to deliver real, tangible change to people in their neighbourhoods. And we need to talk about it, relentlessly. Solar panels on the leisure centre roof that heat the pool and cut the cost of admission. Planting trees at primary schools so it stays cooler in summer heatwaves. Community-owned renewable energy. 

Now is not the moment to be talking to people about lofty targets, and if we’re more or less likely to meet them than we were a year ago. People have far too many worries in their lives to engage in what feel like abstract and remote concepts.

Instead we need to keep talking about progress we have already made and continue to make. If you tell people renewable energy now powers 50% of the UK energy mix, they are surprised, happy and proud. 

There are going to be battles aplenty as we transition to a cleaner, greener economy. We can’t shy away from them. We can arm ourselves with the best insights to tell the most compelling stories. We’ve done our best to help with our new report, Britain Talks Climate and Nature, published today. 

It’s not a report about net zero. It’s a blueprint for how we move away from polarising and technical terms and talk about building a more prosperous future, together. 

Rachael Orr 

CEO at Climate Outreach