What will Net Zero cost?* *and who will pay for it?
NET ZERO IS THE BRITISH STATE’S biggest undertaking for a generation and a strange throwback to the command and control regimes of old. The plan is to end the use of fossil fuels, which currently meet 80 per cent of our energy needs.
It requires a radical transformation of every part of the economy. Every gas boiler will need to be replaced, the freedoms, flexibility and affordability offered by petrol and diesel vehicles will have to be denied, and most industrial processes reimagined. As yet, there are no answers to the obvious question — who pays?
That so many people are treating this huge potential expense so casually is baffling. Parliament needs the best possible analysis of the potential costs so that MPs can take informed decisions about the way ahead. If the cost is likely to be punishingly high, we are going to need an escape route.
