Net zero. It’s a simple enough concept to understand – the notion that we reduce carbon emissions to a level such that we are no longer adding to the stock in the atmosphere. More and more companies and countries are taking the pledge, promising to hit ‘net zero’ by 2050, 2030 or even sooner.

But it’s easier said than done. Industrial processes remain carbon intensive, agriculture and aviation too. Even the sudden economic halt brought about by Covid 19 this year will result in a mere downward blip in greenhouse gas emissions.

The sharp decline in energy use at the beginning of the pandemic has not persisted. Government stimulus programmes have done little to prioritise green projects - barely 1% of the funds made available around the world will target climate change mitigation (LINK). Hopes that the virus would push us into radical action to reduce emissions have proved illusory.

This may make us pessimistic about the future – but that would be mistaken. The last six months have seen a growing realisation around the world that fully decarbonising our societies is technically possible, relatively cheap and potentially of major benefit to society, particularly its less prosperous families.

A sensible portfolio of actions can reduce emissions, provide jobs and improve living standards in forgotten parts of the UK. It won’t be completely painless but this nine-step plan can beneficially transform much of the British economy.

1. Energy

Successful action will start with electricity generation. Britain has made surprisingly good progress in recent years, cutting CO2 from power plants by 60% in the last decade, largely as a result of the replacement of coal generation by wind and solar power. We should go much further because we’ll need to generate far more electricity to meet demand from electric cars and from heat pumps for home heating. If we increase generation by about 20 times from today’s levels. (CAN YOU describe here what that would look like: x new mega wind farms? Solar panels on every house? Are we on track for this kind of expansion - increasing anything 20fold seems an enormous task?) this will give us sufficient electricity almost all the time, significantly reducing the problems arising from the unpredictability and intermittency of most renewable sources. Is such as massive expansion actually possible? I have calculated (LINK) that the UK would achieve this target by devoting about 5% of its maritime zone to offshore wind, 2% of the land area to solar panels and about 12% to onshore wind. These are large numbers, but far from impossible. BP, a recent convert to the importance of the expansion of global renewables, makes a similar estimate that wind and solar should also be expanded 20 times around the world to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. (LINK)

2. Batteries and hydrogen

Under the scenario described above, we will have far too much electricity almost all the time. Batteries can cope with some of this surplus but most of the power should be converted to hydrogen. Today, hydrogen is created from fossil fuels but it can be easily made from water using the electrolysis process. The gas can be stored for later use to make electricity on the rare occasions when renewable power is insufficient. Hydrogen is hugely versatile; it can also be deployed to power vehicles, to provide the energy for steel-making and other industrial processes and to act as the critical raw material for the chemicals industry. Although ‘green’ hydrogen made from renewable electricity is currently much more expensive than natural gas, the consistently rapid fall in renewable energy prices is pushing down costs every month. This means that for those buildings that cannot be heated by electric heat pumps, hydrogen boilers may even become a viable alternative to gas central heating.

In the last few months, major European countries have shifted strongly towards this plan. France (LINK) and Germany (LINK) have promised a total of €16bn to help build a hydrogen sector. Companies in Norway (LINK) and Denmark (LINK) have announced plans to create chemical plants to build zero-carbon liquid fuels made from hydrogen and using carbon dioxide captured directly from industrial processes. Italy’s dominant gas distributor has begun mixing hydrogen into its pipelines (LINK) while Spain’s largest utility will build a facility to make the gas from solar electricity(LINK) and use it to provide all the needs of a large fertiliser plant. Shell will take surplus electricity from North Sea wind farms to provide hydrogen for an oil refinery in the Netherlands (LINK). A Finnish partnership has suggested using the CO2 from paper mills to combine with green hydrogen to make substitutes for petrol and diesel (LINK) while a French mill will be using it to make electricity when power prices are high (LINK). All this has happened in the last year and the number of announcements is speeding up across the continent.

3. Utilities

As a supplement to decarbonising energy supply, we also need to wrest control over the energy networks back from their current owners, often non-UK businesses owned by private equity funds. Many other countries, such as the US, have publicly controlled energy companies that can act to meet local needs and minimise the cost of gas and electricity. We should follow the example of Germany and offer the chance to local governments to run all the utility networks in their areas. So far, municipal energy companies have not been successful in the UK but they have never actually been able to own the pipes and wires within their towns and cities. This should change.

4. Efficiency

We need to complement the decarbonisation of energy supply with measures to improve energy efficiency. In the UK the crucial target is the poor insulation standards of almost all our housing. Policy has been lamentably weak in this area over the last decades. We have seen minor improvements but now require programmes of deep refurbishment, working street-by-street across the country. This may seem an expensive and difficult programme but nothing else can provide an adequate boost to jobs and incomes in our most deprived areas. The refitting of our substandard homes is the best way of avoiding the worst consequences of the otherwise inevitable rise in unemployment over the next months and years. France is devoting a large fraction of its economic expansion plan to improving the energy efficiency of its homes and public buildings such as schools and prisons. We can also follow this example.

5. Motoring

The obvious other target is car use. Many European cities have pedestrianised large areas of the centre, introduced better cycling provision and improved public transport. As far as I know, none has reversed these changes. Taking cars out of cities is the single best way of reviving centres, reducing pollution levels and getting more people on bikes. Let’s particularly embrace electric bikes, which use a hundred times less energy than a car. Detailed analysis in the Netherlands city of Utrecht (LINK) showed that the spending on cycle lanes was more than repaid by lower health costs as a result of the population embracing active means of getting around the urban centre.

6. Farming

Energy use represents around two thirds of carbon emissions. Easily the next most important source of greenhouse gases is farming. Cows and sheep emit methane and fertiliser use creates nitrous oxide, both powerful greenhouse gases. Moving towards a diet dominated by plants is a vital part of the fight against climate change. We’ll probably never get a stable climate until meat has almost disappeared.

However it is increasingly clear that we can make fully vegan foods that resemble meats for those who would miss the taste and texture of the real thing. Meat production dominates farming around the world and reducing animal numbers will give us space to introduce properly climate-friendly agriculture. That means farming that is less intensive and less dependent on herbicides, pesticides and fertilisers. It will also employ more people.

7. Reforestation.

We need a massive programme of reforestation. The UK woodland cover is little more than a third of the extent of other large European countries and the planting of mixed trees will help capture CO2, bring jobs back to the periphery of the British Isles, help control flooding and improve air quality, as well as providing greater opportunities for leisure.

8. Flying and shipping.

In the long term, we can probably replace the fossil fuels we use for flying with low carbon alternatives made from captured CO2 and hydrogen. Today, we should cut our flying, either taking the train or avoiding long distance travel. This is costly and difficult for some people but the ‘Flight Shame’ movement originating from Sweden has helped push down passenger numbers, particularly in Germany. Flying really matters to your personal carbon footprint; a return journey from London to New York will typically produce more CO2 than your share of the emissions from driving a car for a year.

9. Carbon tax

Lastly, we should try to bring the reluctant oil and gas industries onto our side by instituting a tax on the production of anything which results in carbon emissions. Rarely in the past have businesses asked to be more heavily taxed. But today almost all large fossil companies are pleading for a carbon levy that provides the necessary incentive for them to wean themselves off extracting oil and gas.

Fighting the causes and consequences of climate change is neither particularly difficult or expensive. The net impact on jobs and living standards will be strongly positive. The programme will require direction from central government, and probably an effective carbon tax, alongside a willingness to hand over some powers to local authorities.

Perhaps this is the most contentious part of the programme I propose - the idea that Whitehall should recognise both that the free market needs some assistance when it comes to climate change, and that devolution of real power to towns and cities could be beneficial to everybody.

Chris Goodall is an author and environmentalist whose latest book, What We Need To Do Now, assesses the steps needed to build a low-carbon world and was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize. He writes a weekly newsletter on low carbon progress around the world, available at www.carboncommentary.com