I enjoyed Jonathan Freedland’s lampooning of climate sceptics suffering in the recent heatwave (Climate sceptics cheering as they melt in record temperatures? This heatwave is where satire has come to die, 26 June). He writes: “Given the desperate need for economic growth, I understand why net zero can seem like an unaffordable luxury. But look up: it’s a life-saving essential.”
Indeed it is essential, and it is far from being unaffordable. The Climate Change Committee’s seventh carbon budget in 2025 estimates that reaching net zero by 2050 will cost £4bn a year – a 73% drop from its estimate five years previously. That amounts to just 0.2% of GDP – most of which will be met by the private sector – and the savings it will generate are so great that by 2040 net zero will be a net benefit to the economy. And the Office for Budget Responsibility puts the public-sector costs of net zero at £70 per person per year.
