Has the true cost of net zero finally been revealed?

When the Commons nodded through Britain’s legally-binding net zero target in 2019 all MPs had to go on was the Climate Change Committee’s estimate that the whole process would cost £1 trillion. MPs failed to probe this figure and the government didn’t even try to calculate one. Indeed, when the Treasury attempted to come up with its own figure in 2021 it gave up, saying it couldn’t be done because there are too many unknowables. Net zero will require technologies, such as hydrogen production via electrolysis of water, which are still in an early stage of development and have not yet been scaled up.

Now the think tank Civitas has weighed in with its own analysis. And its conclusion? The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has seriously under-estimated the costs of achieving net zero. Far from £1 trillion – or £1.3 trillion at today’s prices – net zero it claims will cost a minimum of £4.58