Foreword by David Shukman
David Shukman, formerly BBC News’ Science Editor, is a highly-experienced consultant, writer and broadcaster on climate issues.
It’s no surprise that many people admit to feeling a bit bewildered right now.
On the one hand, the pace of climate change seems to be accelerating. It’s leading to new extremes of weather from heatwaves to rainstorms with intensifying impacts on lives and livelihoods.
And on the other, the political consensus around Net Zero can appear to be is fracturing at times. After almost twenty years of overwhelming support from all major parties, there are questions about the speed of Net Zero and indeed whether it’s worth pursuing at all.
So when a business leader asked me recently what to make of all this, I suggested focusing on the basics, identifying some anchor-points that we can be sure about. And there are plenty of them.
The first of these is physical.
Every month we’re getting more evidence that we are genuinely entering a new era in our climate. Records for ever higher temperatures keep being set. Not long ago 40°C was unimaginable in Britain but then it actually happened in 2022, a few months after Oh Yes! Net Zero was launched.
During that off-the-scale heat, wildfires burned down nearly seventy houses across England, something we tend to assume only happens in hotter parts of the world.
Rainfall is also becoming more intense. Some six million homes are now judged to be at risk of flooding across England, a study by the Environment Agency has found.
And this reality can’t be avoided, depending on whether we have views on climate change or not. When floodwater ruins a home and wrecks possessions, it doesn’t care how anyone voted.
Renewable energy investments, like solar, can yield significant cost savings.
The second of the basics that we can latch onto is financial.
Many of the actions that help to reduce greenhouse gases can also save money. They’re about being more efficient, especially in the use of energy, at a time of severe pressure on families and organisations. Anything that reduces bills is surely common sense.
From large to small and across all sectors, it’s fascinating to see how the benefits are being recognised by so many members of Oh Yes! Net Zero.
One of the giants of British industry, the medical technology company Smith+Nephew, is very clear about this.
It’s investing in solar panels, among many other features, at its site in Hull and at its new facility at Melton West business park.
As Paul Andrews, the firm’s Director of Global Energy, says, it’s “easy to look at net zero as an added cost, but it can drive savings”. Simply put, using less energy means spending less.
That’s echoed by the experience of the NHS. Hull University Teaching Hospital NHS Trust is finding that its solar farm saves it an amazing £1 million a year and it’ll take just four years to pay off the cost of setting it up.
So regardless of who’s in power, the case for investing in everything from LED lights to paperless working is as strong as ever.
So Oh Yes! Net Zero is definitely on the right track.
And it continues to have great potential. Official figures show that there’s been a steady decline in Hull’s emissions of greenhouse gases.
Based on forecasts for this year, they’re on course to fall by 60% compared to 2005. That’s quite an achievement and, at the current rate of decline, the city will hit Net Zero by 2039.
But given the falling costs of electric cars, batteries and renewables, it could easily happen sooner than that. Technologies that looked implausible not long ago are suddenly becoming more commonplace and, crucially, far more affordable.
So just as the political tides may sometimes be looking less favourable, there are good reasons to think that Net Zero is more viable than ever. That’s particularly the case at the local level of a city like Hull where interest and support remain strong.
The best example of that is the programme of Carbon Clinics that support a fair transition. These sessions aren’t about abstract ideas. Instead, they’re focused on the practical task of working with organisations – many of whom employ less than 10 people locally in Hull - to understand their carbon footprints and what they can do about them.
They’ve proved popular, and they’re effective too, leading to detailed plans for carbon reductions that wouldn’t otherwise have been possible. When asked to sum up the clinics in a single word, participants came up with ‘informed’, ‘motivated’ and ‘enlightened’.
That’s a real vote of confidence.
Net Zero isn’t just about carbon, though that’s important. In these uncertain times, it’s also about providing more than that for businesses and other organisations: the inspiration to thrive.
