Tell the government what you think of its net zero policy

The government has asked for evidence on how it is delivering its net zero target. With the recent announcements to resume fracking, license new North Sea oil drilling and impede solar farms, there are a few things to say. PeCAN has prepared this draft response which we hope is fair and constructive but we would welcome your feedback before we submit it in PeCAN’s name (please send any comments to [email protected] by Sunday).

You can also respond in your own name or on behalf of a business by the deadline next Thursday, 27 October. It would be brilliant if the government received lots of responses asking it not to go backwards on net zero and crowdsourcing some constructive ideas. There’s no knowing what will happen to our responses in the current political uncertainty but sharing our views can only help.

The questions for individuals are quite general. Here they are with some talking points suggested below.

Questions for the public
18. Have you or are you planning to take personal action to reduce your carbon emissions (for example through how you travel, what you buy, how you heat your home)? If so, how?
19. Do you face any barriers to doing this? What are they?
20. What would help you to make greener choices?
21. What is working well about the measures being put in place to reach net zero?
22. What is not working well about the measures being put in place to reach net zero?
23. Do you have any further comments on how efforts to tackle climate change are affecting you?

Possible talking points:
The cost of living, adequacy of retrofit grants, promoting behaviour change, public education, supporting community energy and climate action, learning from elsewhere, duties for Local Authorities, cycle and walking paths, public transport, housing, planning, building standards, trees, pesticides, land management, recycling, waste management...

The full set of question and details of how to respond are at this link.

Update 24 Oct 2022: PeCAN's final response is here.