As upheavals both at home and abroad are making abundantly clear, it’s more important than ever for businesses to lead our transition to net zero.
The UK is currently facing a cost of living crisis on multiple fronts. From the unprecedented increase in inflation, to the rise in the energy price cap, people across the country are struggling to make ends meet.
Adding pressure to this already fraught situation is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As we mentioned in our March newsletter, the roots of the climate crisis and this war are both embedded in our dependency on fossil fuels. At this critical period – both domestically and geopolitically – we need the government to take decisive action.
Unfortunately, what we’re instead hearing are rumblings around the re-introduction of fracking; Nigel Farage spreading disinformation around the price of the green transition on GB news; and a new coalition of MPs (with links to a climate sceptic group) looking to dismantle the UK’s net zero agenda.
The energy crisis is a massive problem that must be addressed, but abandoning our net zero commitments is not how we solve it. The long-term stability of our society depends on us changing the way we do things – for the better.
The importance of behavioural change
According to a 2021 report by the UK’s Behavioural Insights Unit (swiftly taken down but cleverly captured by Tom Greenwood of Wholegrain Digital), behavioural change is key to achieving the country’s legally binding net zero goals. Indeed, according to the Committee on Climate Change, 62% of future emissions reductions will depend on it.

There are a lot of big, fancy technological fixes for solving climate change being talked about, and it’s true that we will need many different solutions! However, a lot of them are as of yet unproven. Whereas we know behaviour change makes a difference, and it’s a solution we have in our armoury now.
Becoming a leader in the behavioural change movement is an opportunity to deliver intrinsic value to your company, but also extrinsic value to society. Both – I think you would agree – are more important than ever.