How much will net zero cost? The Committee on Climate Change calculated £50bn per year, which is about £2000 per household. My estimate is that half of this will be seen in Energy bills and the other half in the products we buy. We are already investing so not all this is new, but most of it would be. Bills could rise to about £3300 per year.
It's a tough message for any politician to say that costs are going up, and understandably no one is saying this directly to their customers. Many in the media are already raising concerns over decarbonisation initiatives like smart meters and heat pumps.
The threat of climate change is real, but not yet close enough for people to make a positive choice to pay more.
To gain public acceptance of the costs we need to push the benefits. Smart meters put you in control, give you more choices. Heat pumps must be cheaper than gas (which means fixing the imbalance in gas and electricity prices). EVs are just better cars. Smart Grids make better use of our resources. We all have a role to play.
And we must accept that in many cases the government will have to pay, mostly through the taxation system, but sometimes people will just need hard cash to make the right choices.
Let's be honest with people about the costs and that it's them that must pay. Better to have the argument now than leave it too late.
