I’m getting to the stage of grumpy old manhood that I start avoiding radio/podcast debates about Net Zero before I burst a blood vessel or throw something. I mean, if you’re paid to be a pundit, surely you could do the most basic research before throwing your opinion into the mix. No-one’s ever going to invite/pay me to opine on, say, the state of UK cancer treatment because I have zero experience of it – beyond losing the tip of one ear to a basal cell carcinoma which qualifies me to comment “wear sunscreen” and no more. If I was approached, I’d say “sorry, find an oncologist.” But climate change, clean energy, Net Zero? Come on in! Who cares if you know nothing, if you’ve got an opinion, let’s hear it!

The latest thing that triggered me was last week’s announcement that the UK energy price cap was rising by 4% for the average household’s energy bill. Now, it was explicit in Ofgem’s press release that this consisted of an 8% rise in gas bills and a rise of just 1% in electricity bills, but not a single presenter or pundit pointed this differential out on any debate I listened to – and I get through a lot of current affairs podcasts.

Given UK inflation is running at 2.9%, this means electricity bills are effectively falling in real terms. Yet every single debate on the 4% rise moved onto whether we could ‘afford’ Net Zero – the costs of which fall largely on electricity (if you lump 100% of grid investment in, which Net Zero sceptics always do). A below inflation rise in electricity bills when gas is causing inflationary rises suggests that clean energy is almost certainly insulating the consumer from those sky high gas prices. Analysis by the good folk at Carbon Brief backs this assertion with evidence.

At some point in each debate, someone will ask “why is the UK is going it alone on Net Zero?” which is nonsense as about 80% of the global population is covered by a Net Zero target. The Independent reported two years ago that seven countries are already 100% renewable, and in terms of wind and solar (which is what much of the media means by Net Zero), there are at least 12 countries with a higher % than us. Ditto EVs and heat pumps – we tend to feature just outside the top 10 in each league table – impressive but hardly ‘going it alone’. Of course, nobody provides any evidence to back up their assertion that we’re forging blindly ahead while everyone else is sitting back and watching us go.

The cherry on the cake is usually some external guest – often a right wing politician or a union leader representing the oil and gas sector – saying “Of course we’ve got to tackle climate change but we can’t afford Net Zero.” This airy decoupling of the problem and the target necessary to fix that problem is usually the final straw for me. I haven’t yet thrown anything across the room, but I’ve come bloody close.