On the Net Zero Business Podcast review of 2024, I suggested that the reason why we are feeling an anti-Net Zero backlash is that climate action is actually starting to bite, and that bite is starting to put the squeeze on the voices of the status quo. On Monday I interviewed John Friedman for next week’s podcast episode and, spoiler alert, he made a similar point, saying we are disrupting them, so inevitably they will try to disrupt our disruption.

One of the things that always makes me smile is that a clear majority of big businesses have a commitment to Net Zero, yet a whole cohort of reactionary politicians and commentators claim Net Zero will destroy the economy. What do a bunch of people who have never run so much as a whelk stall know that our captains of industry don’t? And the odd thing is, they are preaching to a very small choir – 80% of UK citizens support action on climate change – even 62% of people who voted for Reform (the most anti-Net Zero party) in July support climate action.

The problem is these loudmouths never tire of being wrong. Whether it is invented health risks like ‘blade flicker’ from wind turbines, zombie climate myths or talk of ‘Net Zero zealotry’, the BS keeps flowing. But we must ignore this constant noise and keep going. Almost everything good that has happened in the world – the invention of vaccines, the abolition of slavery, universal suffrage – has come with prophecies of doom. If tackling climate change was easy, it wouldn’t need doing.