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I listen to a lot of political podcasts, but, as I’ve mentioned before, when Net Zero gets discussed, it often sets me off. This weekend it was Tim Montgomerie on the the Not Another One Podcast when he was challenged on why he had joined the (climate-sceptic) Reform UK. He said his position on climate change was (paraphrased):

I believe climate change is happening, is caused by us and we need to deal with it, but [there’s always a but], Net Zero isn’t the way to do it as it causes economic harm – future technology will come along and save us.

I could get angry about the stupidity of this argument, and that no-one challenged him to say “the impacts are happening right now so we can’t wait, and, even if we did have time, where are these magic wand-style technologies going to come from?”, but I won’t because unfortunately this attitude is all too prevalent.

There is always an excuse to do nothing and people will twist themselves into all sorts of knots to excuse themselves from actually changing anything. I’m the first to admit that I’m still on the journey to a low carbon lifestyle – I may have gone car-free, eat a ‘climatarian’ diet, insulated my house and try to avoid flying, but I still have a gas boiler. When I can afford it, a heat pump will be installed, but for now my finances are just reality, not an excuse. It’s definitely on the to do list rather than the can’t do list.

As my mantra goes, Sustainability is about change and change is about psychology. The crappy excuses come when people are pushed out of their comfort zone and confronted with reality. Confrontation often ends in denial. For example, much of the road transport debate can be summed up by “Why don’t you cycle to work? Well, what if I have to pick up a fridge on the way home?” Objectively nonsense – I’ve never seen a car in a commuting queue with a fridge on board – but you hear it all the time.

With groups, I find ‘backcasting’ is the secret sauce to get people out of the “can’t do” mindset. In short you start at the end: “what would success look like for your organisation if you hit your Net Zero by 20-whatever target?” and work back to the present day “What would you have to have achieved by the halfway point?” and then “What would you need to do today to get these balls rolling?” There’s something about this that frames actions as opportunities rather than monolithic barriers. Backcasting attendees often up their ambitions rather than water them down.

For individuals, I find the “what one thing can you do?” question works. While ‘one thing’ will never be enough, it lowers the barrier to entry and allows the subject to choose where they start, rather than forcing a 10 point plan on them. Eating vegetarian one day a week is much more accessible than trying to give up meat immediately. Cycling to work one day a week feels doable. “But what if they do one thing and decide they’ve done their bit?” you may ask – well it’s better than ‘do nothing’, and many people will use ‘one thing’ as a stepping stone to lots of things.

So much and all as I wanted one of Montgomerie’s co-panelists to confront him on his wishful thinking, I know it wouldn’t do any good in practice. The whole point of my Green Jujitsu approach to engagement is not to square up to people like a boxer, but to turn their strengths into opportunities and find ways to get them to want to change.