First, the good news. The Commons select committee on energy security and net zero has called on the government to drop net zero. Now the bad news: they only mean the term ‘net zero’ not the actual policy of trying to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050.

They complain that the term has become a ‘lightning rod for opposition to climate action’, and that it has become a ‘distraction’, even though it describes perfectly what the government is – ruinously – trying to achieve. They want the policy to continue, but under a different name – though possibly not ‘net stupid’, which is Reform UK’s preferred term. Presumably it would be known by some propagandistic euphemism or other. How about a Sovietesque ‘glorious transition’?

Sorry, but changing the name isn’t going to negate the utter foolishness of legally committing ourselves to eliminating net carbon emissions by some random date

Sorry, but changing the name isn’t going to negate the utter foolishness of legally committing ourselves to eliminating........

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