The recent publication of the UK's Net Zero Strategy highlights both the challenges and ambitious steps that need to be taken up to 2050 to reach the country’s net zero emissions goal.
However, a new paper from a group of UK university students urges policymakers to also look beyond the horizon of 2050 and consider the impact of policies across the full lifetimes of young people and future generations.
George Hayes, named as a lead author from Cambridge University, stated ‘now is unmistakably the time for decisive action on climate change, but policymaking shouldn’t be set within a rigid 2050-time horizon. It’s important that we consider the long-term consequences of the UK’s net zero policies and how this perspective might inform the climate action we take today”.
The new paper is published in association with the COP26 Universities Network, as part of a briefing paper series aiming to raise climate ambition ahead of – and beyond - COP26.
The authors argue that reaching net zero should not be seen as an endpoint to the UK’s climate policy. Young and future generations will disproportionately face the impacts of climate change itself, so additional negative consequences of short-sighted policy design should be avoided.
Moreover, the UK cannot act in isolation and should do more to encourage a global transition towards net zero, even once its own transition is complete.
“The dependence of energy and climate policy on decisions made decades ago necessitates that a long-term perspective is taken now to ensure we achieve a net zero emissions society that thrives in 2050 and beyond” said a lead author, Owen Tutt, from SOAS, University of London. Fellow lead author Valentine Kim, University of Edinburgh stressed that paper "does not seek to hinder any progress on reducing emissions, but rather to inform how this progress is achieved”.