Call for evidence outcome

Net Zero Review: Call for evidence

Updated 13 January 2023

This was published under the 2022 Truss Conservative government

The Net Zero Review

The BEIS Secretary of State has commissioned an independent review of the government’s approach to delivering its net zero target, to ensure we are delivering net zero in a way that is pro-business and pro-growth. See the Terms of Reference for further information on the Review.

The review will consider how our approach to net zero can:

• deliver maximum economic growth and investment, driving opportunities for private investment, jobs, innovation, exports, and growth right across the UK
• support UK energy security and affordability for consumers and business and the need to rapidly increase and strengthen UK energy production and supply
• minimise costs borne by businesses and consumers, particularly in the short-term

The review will assess the economic co-benefits associated with different policies and how we can drive down the cost curve for net zero technologies. It will consider innovative approaches and ways of delivering our target that ensure the government maximises the economic opportunities presented by net zero.

Approach to engagement

Everyone in the country has a stake in the transition to net zero. It impacts consumers, employees and businesses alike, affecting our cities, agricultural economy and natural environment. It will continue to change the way we lead our lives, altering the way we warm our homes, commute to work and much more. Given the all-encompassing nature of the transition, we would like to understand from as many different stakeholders and interested groups across the population how the transition can be delivered in a way that supports growth, consumers, communities, energy security and businesses.

We are therefore committed to a review that will consider a range of evidence and views from across society. This will include a range of themed roundtables with businesses, industry, communities, local government and non-governmental groups to collect a broad range of views on the transition to net zero. We will also engage on an individual level with a variety of leaders in the net zero space, including but not limited to academics, business leaders and politicians.

We are supplementing this with a broad call for evidence, open to the whole British public. In doing this, alongside the aforementioned engagement, we hope to thoroughly reflect views and trends in the report, providing one of the biggest collation of views in an independent review into the UK’s net zero transition to date.

The call for evidence

The aim of the call for evidence is to provide an open channel to the general public to give their views on the transition, in particular giving a voice to the public and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

We have split up the questions into those that are answerable by all, and then those which are best answered by different groups of stakeholders.

Overarching questions

1. How does net zero enable us to meet our economic growth target of 2.5% a year?

2. What challenges and obstacles have you identified to decarbonisation?

3. What opportunities are there for new/amended measures to stimulate or facilitate the transition to net zero in a way that is pro-growth and/or pro-business?

4. What more could government do to support businesses, consumers and other actors to decarbonise?

5. Where and in what areas of policy focus could net zero be achieved in a more economically efficient manner?

6. How should we balance our priorities to maintaining energy security with our commitments to delivering net zero by 2050?

7. What export opportunities does the transition to net zero present for the UK economy or UK businesses?

Questions for businesses

8. What growth benefits/opportunities have you had, or do you envisage having, from the net zero transition?

9. What barriers do you face in decarbonising your business and its operations?

10. Looking at the international market in your sector, what green opportunities seem to be nascent or growing?

11. What challenges has the net zero transition presented to your business?

12. What impacts have changing consumer choices/demand had on your business?

13. What impacts have decarbonisation/net zero measures had on your business?

14. What more could be done to support your business and/or sector to decarbonise?

15. Do you foresee a role for your business within an expanded UK supply of heat pumps, energy efficiency, electric vehicles, hydrogen economy or clean power?

16. For clean power industry: what barriers to entry have you found in deploying new plant and technologies?

17. How many green jobs do you estimate will be created in your sector by 2030?

Questions for the public

18. Have you or are you planning to take personal action to reduce your carbon emissions (for example through how you travel, what you buy, how you heat your home)? If so, how?

19. Do you face any barriers to doing this? What are they?

20. What would help you to make greener choices?

21. What is working well about the measures being put in place to reach net zero?

22. What is not working well about the measures being put in place to reach net zero?

23. Do you have any further comments on how efforts to tackle climate change are affecting you?

Questions for local government, communities and other organisations delivering net zero locally

24. What are the biggest barriers you face in decarbonising / enabling your communities and areas to decarbonise?

25. What has worked well? Please share examples of any successful place-based net zero projects.

26. How does the planning system affect your efforts to decarbonise?

27. How can the design of net zero policies, programmes, and funding schemes be improved to make it easier to deliver in your area?

28. Are there any other implications of net zero or specific decarbonisation projects for your area that the Review should consider?

Questions for academia and innovators

29. How can we ensure that we seize the benefits from future innovation and technologies?

30. Is there a policy idea that will help us reach net zero you think we should consider as part of the review?