In the autumn of 2022, I was appointed independent chair of the Net Zero Review. I had been asked by the prime minister to look at how net zero could be delivered in a way that was both more effective and efficient for business and economic growth. The review took me on a journey across the UK. I held more than 50 roundtables, compiling evidence from every sector affected by the energy transition, in all corners of the UK, and received written evidence from over 2,800 organisations and businesses. In doing so, the Net Zero Review became the largest engagement exercise on net zero to date.
What became overwhelmingly clear from listening to business, was that Westminster and its politicians were behind the curve. Business was fully aware of the potential for net zero to deliver growth, jobs and regeneration. They needed more clarity, certainty and consistency from government to unlock greater confidence for private markets to invest in the UK. That is a £1trn opportunity, my review “Mission Zero” found, with the potential to create an additional 480,000 jobs by 2035.
Yet without that clear and consistent policy direction, business and investment will go elsewhere. That was the other message of the Net Zero Review: the energy transition and net zero may be here to stay, but there are no free opportunities to ride on the back of other countries taking a lead in decarbonisation.
To follow is to fail: the UK must demonstrate true climate leadership in being the home of new climate technologies at the same time as forging the policy frameworks that have successfully delivered real change, such as the Emissions Trading Scheme or the Contracts for Difference frameworks, both pioneered in the UK. Add to this the fact that the UK has the largest windfarm in the northern hemisphere, the largest geological storage for carbon capture, some of the most advanced net zero research facilities in the world, and we should have a winning formula for success.
Last year alone, net zero related businesses and industries grew by 9 per cent compared to barely 1 per cent of GDP growth across the economy as a whole. Many of our new tech companies have climate action at their heart. That’s why I established a new investment boutique bank, Desmos, to help raise funds internationally for sustainable companies. The capital is out there. We just need to make the case for why it should come to the UK, a mission I’ve set myself now that I am out of government.
Net zero isn’t a cost, nor is it a burden to be borne. Already the US has demonstrated the early successes of a green industrial policy, with the Inflation Reduction Act witnessing a private sector investment of over $5 for every $1 of public funding committed. It is an investment model that we must deploy in the UK. Our mayors are leading the way making the case for new financing structures, such as the Bristol City Leap, where £7m of public funding has attracted over £500m in private investment to decarbonise the city’s public heating system. These frameworks can be easily scaled up. It is nearly two years since “Mission Zero” was published: the new Labour government has now taken up the “mission based” approach the report recommended, with the establishment of “Mission Control”. Yet every three months represents 1 per cent of our journey to achieving net zero by 2050. For all our sakes, we need more action: less talk and more walk. The future of our climate, and our economy, depends upon it.
This article first appeared in our print Spotlight Party Politics Special, published on 15 November 2024.
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