My colleague Amy has written a really interesting piece on net zero which looks at what net zero is – with another article soon looking at what net zero IS NOT.
When I read her article, I was amazed to learn that we have UK politicians, who are not only questioning the need to tackle climate change just yet, but also others who think it is all just a big hoax.
Nigel Farage, the leader and largest shareholder of Reform UK (a limited company), is credited with coming up with the phrase ‘net stupid’, in a newspaper column in 2022 when he described the government's net zero agenda as a "scandal of epic proportions".
Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice has since become the most prominent promoter of the phrase and in February 2025, he announced plans that would tax renewable energy and scrap the country’s ‘legally binding’ net zero target.
As the BBC article reports, He said renewable energy was a "massive con" and promised Reform would recover money paid in subsidies to wind and solar companies.
I mention Reform because they have been the most vocal opponents of net zero, but they are not the only party questioning whether climate change is real, or whether we can afford it (spoiler alert – we can’t afford not to deal with it!).
So, for those of us who think it is better to believe in the science and realise that we ALL have a part to play in reducing carbon emissions, what should we do in the face of such political opportunism?
Coal power generation in China and India has fallen for the first time since the 1970s
Russell Jones Content and communications manager
Facts over fiction
Well, I’ve found a wonderful website that lists a lot of the manic claims made by populists, net zero sceptics and out-and-out conspiracy theorists.
The netzerostupid.org website tackles each myth, half-truth and downright lie, countering net stupid with simple facts and unassailable truth.
The website takes these soundbites and explains, in simple terms, why they’re misleading. It’s created by a recently retired Professor of Geophysics who spent much of his career working with the oil and gas exploration industry. As he says himself, he cannot be cast as an eco-zealot.
However, he believes the science of climate is robust … “and that science tells us, unequivocally, it’s time to move on from fossil fuels.”
His website lists 20 commonly used phrases and statements that you may have heard from family members, colleagues, friends, people on the bus or down the pub, all parroting the kind of empty rhetoric of the climate change deniers.
Two of the most blatantly wrong statements are ‘I don’t believe in net zero’ and ‘There is no climate change’.
Both are categorically rubbished by the website with the explanation of the second pointing to scientific data going back hundreds of years, with the effect of climate change clearly illustrated in the brilliant ‘climate stripes’ by Professor Ed Hawkins from Reading University.
I particularly like the response to the statement: ‘Climate scientists don’t have a clue’ which explores Reform’s previous Energy & Environment statement, describing it as following a “disjointed series of misleading half-truths that present a laughably weak attempt to show present day climate change is entirely natural”.
What’s the point?
We’ve all heard people ask what can ‘little old me’ do to make a difference which mirrors the sceptical view that ‘The UK has done its share’, but as the creator of the Industrial Revolution, the UK is responsible for about 3% of global CO2 emissions from 1850.
This rises to more than 5% when you include emissions from former colonial territories, making the UK one of the top four historical emitters, so of course we have a major part to play.
Another argument is that ‘It’s up to China, the UK doesn’t matter’. Firstly, as the website points out, it’s not OK to drop litter, so just because someone else has, that doesn’t give you the right to do so.
Secondly it highlights how China is installing more solar and wind energy than the rest of the world put together (sorry POTUS, you’re wrong about windmills and the Chinese!).
This recent Guardian article also highlights how coal power generation in both China and India has fallen for the first time since the 1970s and, as China has shown with the world’s largest fleet of electric buses, when they decide to do something, it can happen very quickly.
It’s the economy stupid!
It’s not just Reform and other climate change deniers that are the problem though, with other parties rubbishing what they see as the ‘cost’ of tackling climate change and pointing to the ‘economic harm’ it will cause the UK.
In addition to countering the statement ‘We can’t afford net zero’ by explaining the costs of building a net zero society compared with the costs of doing nothing, the website also examines the myth that ‘We can get cheap oil from the North Sea’ and explains why this is a non-starter, as any deposits that are left are smaller and harder to reach.
The website also doesn’t avoid difficult questions and calls for people to get involved more if they do think: ‘Solar farms and wind turbines are a blot on the landscape’, or if they are of the opinion that: ‘Renewable energy is only viable because of subsidies’.
It might surprise you to learn that the fossil fuel companies actually receive much larger subsidies than clean, home-grown, low-cost renewable energy.
Green jobs for the future
The government has just announced the biggest ever spending spree designed to get the UK set for the future, with the Warm Homes Plan.
This is focussed on the electrification of heat through the increased use of heat pumps and solar panels, to help develop a clean electricity grid, producing more zero carbon electricity.
A major part of the plan is to create sustainable jobs in energy efficiency and clean heating and an ambition to manufacturer 70% of the heat pumps that are installed, here in the UK.
As the UK’s largest manufacturer of heat pumps, we fully support this and are working tirelessly to grow the heat pump market and help supply it with home-grown products.
At Mitsubishi Electric, we know that we are on the verge of a truly electric economy and, once government, business and consumers come together to support the transition, then we can rapidly create the ‘green’ jobs of the future now, which will seriously help the economy.
Ignoring that opportunity? Now that would be stupid!
Russell Jones is content and communications manager
