Cameron Hepburn: Sir Tony Blair’s net zero intervention missed the mark
Cameron Hepburn, Battcock Professor of Environmental Economics at the Oxford Smith School, responds to The Climate Paradox: Why We Need to Reset Action on Climate Change, a new report from The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
"Sir Tony Blair's intervention on net zero this week was well-intentioned, but it contained some unhelpful misconceptions:
- Carbon capture needs to scale-up by 100-1000x, but even then, it’s just 10% of the answer
- Small modular reactors and nuclear fusion have been cause for hope for at least fifteen years, but we're still waiting and the science is clear we do not have decades to act
- The idea that the "low hanging fruit" of renewables deployment has already been picked isn't just wrong - it's dangerous and could lead the world down a difficult and altogether more expensive path.
"From the conversations I’m having, businesses and investors can already see the benefits of the net zero transition - now what they need more than anything is certainty. So do British households, who are by and large concerned for the climate and supportive of changes. They are right to be - the reality of a successful transition to net zero is an efficient home, a car that’s much cheaper to run, cheaper electricity and better health from clean air.
"Much of the recent net zero arguments have rightly focused on the practicalities of net zero. But we should not forget the moral imperative either - it’s right for the UK to lead on an issue that will affect future generations for many decades to come."
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