When Tony Blair made his ill-advised foray into the world of Net Zero last week, one of my various uncharitable thoughts was just how old he looked, compared to when he burst onto the political scene in the mid-90s looking so pre-naturally youthful he was nicknamed ‘Bambi’. His argument, that we should try solving climate change without weaning ourselves off fossil fuels, but invest instead in unproven, expensive and inefficient end of pipe technologies such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Direct Air Capture (DAC), is one I hear most often from people with grey hair and wrinkles, quite frankly.

Now, before people start screaming ‘ageism’ at me, let’s look at some evidence. Polling by YouGov shows that about twice as many people are pro-Net Zero than anti (see graph). But look at the age breakdown. The pro-Net Zero point of view skews heavily young with older people being much more sceptical or half-hearted in support.

I assume this is because the younger generation have grown up with climate science as, er, science, they see wind turbines, solar panels and EV charging posts as perfectly normal, they are more than happy to buy electrons rather than molecules (Spotify, Netflix, digital pictures etc) and, most importantly, they have much more of a stake in the future than those of advanced years. By contrast, Boomers like Blair grew up in the post-war fossil fuel boom where car ownership, plastics, jetting off to the sun and disposable products were the thing. And the problem is that most people of influence are in the right hand two columns of the chart…

When I got my first Sustainability job, way back in 1998 and one year into the Blair Government, the shiny new concept then was the need to shift from ‘end of pipe’ to ‘clean technology’, embracing technologies that created little or no pollution in the first place rather than trying to clean it up afterwards. Maybe my timing was lucky, at 27 my Gen X brain was still in its ‘learning’ phase, so I embraced this fundamental concept and made it the platform on which I have built my career.

(Like every middle-aged man, I tell myself I’m still just as curious, but when I heard a quip that most people don’t listen to new music after the age of 35, it felt like reality punching me hard in the gut.)

Another concept from my halcyon days was ‘intergenerational equity’, that we should leave future generations a planet worth living in. It is beholden on Gen Xers and Boomers to help create that future, but as the old saying goes, we won’t solve the problem with the same thinking that created it.

If he can’t grasp a 30 year old concept like clean technology, Mr Blair should acknowledge his time is past, put his feet up and let younger generations get on with building a sustainable future for themselves, their children and grandchildren. To quote David Cameron’s devastating  putdown at him again “You were the future once.”