What is Net Zero?

What does ‘net zero’ mean?

‘Net zero’ is short for ‘net-zero emissions’. This is when the amount of greenhouse gases being released into the Earth’s atmosphere is equal to the amount being removed from it. It essentially means an overall balance between the amount of these gases emitted and the amount taken away.

The UK government currently has a Net Zero Strategy in place for the country to reach this goal by 2050.

What is climate change?

Climate change is the long-term change in weather patterns. While the meaning of the phrase includes natural causes, such as volcanic activity and changes in solar radiation, it’s now more synonymous with changes caused by human activity, such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation.

The effects of climate change have become increasingly apparent over recent years, with rising temperatures and changing weather patterns causing both droughts and floods, more severe forest fires, disruption to ecosystems, melting glaciers and rising sea levels, just to name a few.

Some serious long-term consequences of these changes include crop shortages, insect outbreaks, the death of sea life, food and water shortages, increased air pollution and population displacement.

Why was net zero introduced?

The idea of ‘net zero’ was introduced when scientists across the world observed how global temperatures were rising at an alarming rate, and decided that climate change needs to be tackled urgently. They agreed that action needs to be taken right now – before we reach the point of no return and the negative effects are too far advanced to be reversed.

In Paris, France, in December 2015, countries gathered at the 21st Session of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) to discuss the situation, and 196 countries signed a legally binding international treaty to tackle climate change. This treaty is called the Paris Agreement.

The goal for all who signed this treaty was to limit the increase in global average temperature to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, while limiting temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

To make sure every country that signed the treaty takes serious steps to achieve this target, the Paris Agreement requires the countries signed up to it to submit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). These are each country’s individual short and medium-term plans stating how they’ll contribute to the overall goal of reducing global warming. New NDCs with higher ambitions, depending on each country’s capability, must be submitted every five years.

Why is net zero important?

Net zero is a crucial goal for the planet because it addresses one of the most significant causes of global warming: the accumulation of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. And as long as the amount of greenhouse gases emitted exceeds the amount that’s safely absorbed, climate change will keep progressing, and the effects will become more critical.

Achieving net zero is an essential step in reducing the severity of the impact of climate change, and a way to unite the world in the effort to do so. Not only does working together to achieve net zero help the environment recover, but it also paves the way for a greener future that’s less reliant on fossil fuels, and more innovative, sustainable and resilient.

What causes climate change?

We’ve already covered how greenhouse gas emissions are one of the biggest culprits of climate change. But how exactly does it cause global warming?

Greenhouse gases are a type of gas that traps heat from the sun, causing the Earth’s temperature to rise. These include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and ozone (O3). And while some greenhouse gases occur naturally, human activities have significantly increased their output and concentration, disrupting the Earth’s natural climate balance.

The biggest contributor to this increase in greenhouse gas emissions is the burning of fossil fuels like crude oil, coal and natural gas for energy production. These processes all release large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Agriculture also results in greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, with animal and plant farming, fertiliser use and industrial processes producing methane and nitrous oxide.

Plants and trees play a huge part in absorbing CO2, which they use for energy and convert into oxygen. But because of deforestation, there are fewer trees to absorb the excess CO2, and the imbalance is even greater.

Is net zero the same as carbon neutral?

Although ‘net zero’ and ‘carbon neutral’ are sometimes used interchangeably, and they do relate to each other, they’re actually two different concepts in the battle against climate change.

The net zero target covers all kinds of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, while carbon neutrality only focuses on balancing emissions and absorption of carbon dioxide – which is only one type of greenhouse gas.

Carbon neutrality is no less important than reaching net zero, though. In fact, it’s a very important part of reducing the overall amount of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere, and it’s one of the targets for achieving net-zero emissions.

Why is the UK’s net zero target date 2050?

Scientific consensus led by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agreed that the whole world needs to act immediately to slow down global warming caused by human activities, and to mitigate its long-term harmful effects.

To demonstrate a willingness to act upon this urgently, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC, also known as the UK’s Climate Change Committee) published a paper proposing this ambitious deadline. This paper detailed how achieving net zero by 2050 could as much as halve climate change-driven problems like heatwave risks, risk of species extinction and drought length by the year 2100.

The UK’s 2050 net zero target isn’t just wishful thinking – it’s a legally-binding target that aligns with the goals set out by the Paris Agreement, and the UK became the first major economy to pass a net zero emissions law.

What’s the UK doing to achieve net zero?

The UK government has already implemented a range of policies and strategies across various sectors to take steps to achieve net zero:

Ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030

A major part of the UK’s Net Zero Strategy is its long-term goal to fully transition to electric vehicles. The government announced that it’ll end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2023, and that all new cars and vans will need to be completely zero-emission by 2035. This policy aims to reduce emissions from public roads, speed up the adoption of electric vehicles, and stimulate the economy through the increased purchases of electric vehicles in the process.
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Ultra Low Emission Zones (ULEZ)

Cities across the UK are implementing ULEZ to reduce pollution and improve overall air quality. These zones impose charges on vehicles and don’t meet certain emission standards. London’s ULEZ scheme is a prominent example, and similar schemes (such as Clean Air Zone or CAZ) are being implemented in other major cities to improve public health.
To encourage people to swap out non-ULEZ-compliant vehicles for greener ones, the Mayor of London launched a scrappage scheme from January 2023 to 8 November 2024. This scheme provided financial incentives to encourage people to get rid of non-compliant vehicles.

Encouraging heat pump installation

Heat pumps are a lower-carbon alternative to traditional gas or oil boilers when it comes to heating homes and buildings. Running on electricity instead of gas, they work by absorbing and extracting naturally occurring heat in the air and ground and pumping it into the home. And because they use electricity instead of burning gas or oil, they release a lot less CO2 into the atmosphere.

In an energy-saving scheme open to people in England and Wales, the government is currently offering grants of up to £7,500 to help households with the costs of installing new heat pumps. This is called the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.

Green energy targets

Decarbonising the power sector is crucial for achieving net zero, as it’ll enable other sectors like transport and heating to switch to cleaner energy. The UK is committed to increasing its reliance on renewable energy resources while decreasing its reliance on non-renewable ones. The government has set targets to expand offshore wind capacity – energy produced from wind turbines placed in bodies of water, e.g. the ocean – and is also investing in other renewable energy technologies like solar power and hydrogen.

The Glasgow Climate Pact

The UK hosted the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in 2021. The Glasgow Climate Pact, which was an agreement that was reached during the summit, reaffirmed the UK government’s commitment to the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. The pact also emphasised the need to speed up the phasing out of coal power and fossil fuels.

Is net zero by 2050 possible?

The target to achieve net zero by 2050 is an ambitious and challenging one, but it’s possible. However, it needs immediate, significant action to reach it.

While studies published in March 2024 declared that the UK has already reached the halfway mark to net zero, a report from the CCC in July 2024 suggested that the UK was off target, with only a third of the emission reductions needed to hit the goal achieved. To help get back on track, the CCC recommended that the UK reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 81% by 2035.

What can we do to help the UK reach net zero?

As individuals, we have a shared responsibility to reduce our energy usage as much as possible, which in turn will reduce carbon and greenhouse gas emissions.

Reducing personal energy consumption can be as simple as:

• Remembering to turn the lights off in unused rooms

• Dusting the back of your fridge-freezer regularly to make sure it’s running optimally

• Blocking drafts to stop warm air escaping and cold air coming in during the winter (and the other way round in the summer)

Check out our handy guide for more simple energy saving tips.

If you also use gas appliances like gas boilers and cookers, you can also take steps to reduce your gas usage. Our guide on what uses gas in a house and how to reduce gas bills gives some great advice on how to minimise your usage.

Good progress is being made, but it’s clear we still have a long way to go and need to take more decisive action to hit the UK’s net zero target by 2050. No singular action is going to be enough, and both the government and citizens need to take a multifaceted approach to tackling the challenge.

While the government needs to invest more time and money into green initiatives and incentives to adopt them, we as individuals also need to do our bit for the environment, however big or small. Everything from our preferred methods of transport to how we use energy at home can have an impact on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.

Take a look at our Energy page to find out about the different energy tariffs we offer, and about how you could reduce your energy consumption with the help of a free smart meter from UW.