UK’s Net Zero Council relaunched with ‘broader range of voices’
The UK government has relaunched the Net Zero Council and expanded its membership to include civil society and local government.
The council – whose remit is to advise government on the development of its net zero strategy, drive decarbonisation across the economy, and promote environmental sustainability in the business community – had been paused ahead of the UK general election in July 2024.
Its new iteration will include representation from civil society and local government who “both have essential roles to play in accelerating to net zero and can offer more diverse perspectives on challenges, opportunities and solutions,” the government said.
It added that bringing together a “broader range of voices [would] deepen the partnership” between government, the private sector, civil society and local authorities “to support plans to accelerate to net zero across the economy”.
The council convenes senior leaders across the highest emitting sectors of the economy to tackle cross-cutting barriers to decarbonisation and support businesses to take action and to realise the benefits of transition.
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The council was originally launched under the Conservative government in 2023. Its relaunch is part of the Labour government’s Plan for Change, which aims to help deliver new jobs and economic opportunities while ensuring a fair transition, and reflects one of the government’s five core missions: to make Britain a clean energy superpower.
Through this mission, the government hopes to make energy cheap and secure, boost jobs and investment across the country and to “grow our economy from the bottom up and the middle out”.
It said the council’s insights would “maximise the many economic and societal opportunities the transition presents”.
Priorities for the year ahead
At the relaunched council’s first meeting on 5 February, members set priorities for 2025 and 2026 including supporting the development and delivery of sector roadmaps to help businesses create transition plans and investors to identify opportunities, and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises to decarbonise.
It will also work to inform the government’s approach to public engagement and help develop products to support public participation with net zero.
A new delivery group has been formed to oversee the council’s workstreams and to help to drive progress.
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We must act ‘collectively and decisively’
The council is co-chaired by Ed Miliband, secretary of state for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero and Shirine Khoury-Haq, chief executive of the Co-operative Group. The ‘Co-op’ is a large UK retail business whose portfolio includes a chain of supermarkets.
Council members include the chief executives of Nestle, Aviva Investors, Siemens and HSBC, the minister for climate Kerry McCarthy, and representatives of the Local Government Association, Climate Action Network and WWF.
Shirine Khoury-Haq said: “Working urgently for a faster, fairer transition to a greener, cleaner economy is an absolute imperative. For the sake of our planet and for every community here in the UK and around the globe, it’s crucial we work together to unlock the significant opportunities the transition will bring for economic growth too.
“The science couldn’t be clearer that we must act collectively and decisively, and co-operation between businesses, civic society and government is what we need now more than ever.”
The full list of council members is to be released soon.
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About Mia Hunt
Mia is a journalist and editor with a background in covering commercial property, having been market reports and supplements editor at trade title Property Week and deputy editor of Shopping Centre magazine, now known as Retail Destination. She has also undertaken freelance work for several publications including the preview magazine of international trade show, MAPIC, and TES Global (formerly the Times Educational Supplement) and has produced a white paper on energy efficiency in business for E.ON. Between 2014 and 2016, she was a member of the Revo Customer Experience Committee and an ACE Awards judge. Mia graduated from Kingston University with a first-class degree in journalism and was part of the team that produced The River newspaper, which won Publication of the Year at the Guardian Student Media Awards in 2010.
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