𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

MPs have urged Andy Burnham to scrap the term “net zero” because it has become a “lightning rod”. The Parliamentarians on the Commons’ Energy Security and Net Zero Committee warned the term has “lost much of its significant positive association” because of increasing misinformation. Net zero means balancing the amount of greenhouse gases put into the atmosphere with an equal amount taken out.

The committee said the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, led until recently by Ed Miliband, should be given a new name. It said in a report: “The term net zero has lost much of its significant positive association. It increasingly acts as a distraction from the broader aims of the energy transition and as a lightning rod for opposition to climate action. As part of efforts to communicate the energy transition effectively, the term net zero should be dropped from the department’s name and its key communications.”

Both the Conservatives and Reform UK have broken with the consensus around net zero and have called for Britain to get more of its energy from tapping fossil fuel reserves in the North Sea.

Kemi Badenoch has announced the Tories no longer support the target of Britain meeting net zero by 2050, while Reform UK has attacked the Government’s green energy policies as “net stupid zero”.

The Energy Security and Net Zero Committee chairman, Labour MP Bill Esterson, said: “The name net zero has been misused by those opposed to the energy transition and is not widely understood. It therefore makes sense to focus on what reducing our dependence on fossil fuels means and how people will be better off as a result of taking action.”

But energy and net zero minister Martin McCluskey acknowledged on Thursday that the Government needed to be better at communicating on climate issues.

He said: “It’s not just about tackling climate change, which is really important, and we need to carry on doing that. But it’s also about making our whole energy system more secure and making sure that our national security is protected as well.

“Maybe there’s a job for us, and I’ll take this on the chin. Maybe there’s a job for us to be doing much better at communicating that and that’s what we’re hoping to do with some of the announcements, like the one we’ve made this morning.”