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Today’s newsletter looks at what it will take for rich nations to reach net zero. You can read and share a full version of this story on Bloomberg.com. For unlimited access to climate and energy news, please subscribe

Net zero needs you 

By Olivia Rudgard

Many rich economies have made big strides in cleaning up their power supply, but their populations still live high-carbon lifestyles. Unlike less wealthy peers still working towards a coal-free grid, a cluster of mostly European nations now faces a new challenge: persuading the public to live differently. 

“The remaining cuts we need to make to domestic emissions involve sectors, and choices, and changes in technologies, and to some extent in lifestyles, that have a real impact and bearing on our lives day to day,” says Toby Park, a behavioral science expert who has advised the UK government on reducing consumer emissions.

The UK is a good example of the task at hand. The country’s climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee, have tried to put a concrete figure on consumers’ share of the overall carbon-cutting needed for the country to reach net zero by 2050 — 136 metric tons, or roughly one-third of the total.

The advisers also plotted how British households get there. Switching to EVs and heat pumps accounts for more than two-thirds of the needed cuts, while driving less and eating less meat and dairy make up the balance. 

To meet these goals, heat pump and EV sales need to increase by a lot in the next 15 years — something the CCC says is achievable. It only took a few years, it points out, for consumers to adopt other lifestyle-altering technologies such as the internet, mobile phones and refrigerators.

The difficulty here, says Park, who advises on consumer carbon reduction at consulting firm Behavioural Insights Team, is that those felt like obvious switches: products that were clearly better, cheaper or more convenient than their predecessors. For heat pumps and electric cars, that hasn’t so far been the case. 

EVs have been on dealership floors for two decades, but so far make up 5% of cars on UK roads, far short of the 80% share they need to reach by 2040 to keep the country within its carbon budget. That’s starting to change, though. As EV costs drop, sales are quickly ramping up — last month, one in four new cars sold in the UK was electric

Heat pumps are a trickier prospect. UK households have been slow to install them, and more than two-thirds rely on gas boilers for heat. Switching to a heat pump usually takes longer and is more disruptive than replacing a gas boiler, installers are in short supply and the technology is unfamiliar. In order for the share of households with heat pumps to go from 1% now to its goal of 50% by 2040, the CCC says consumers will need to be enticed with subsidies. 

But the government can’t cover the full cost of the transition. Officials should also rally public support, as has been done in previous crises such as war efforts and the Covid pandemic, says Ruth Townend, an environmental researcher at Chatham House. “It needs to be clear that there is a plan in which the public have a role to play, and in which they are being enabled and supported to do so, in a way that’s fair across society.”

What are the other challenges on the road to net zero? Read the full story on Bloomberg.com. 

This week we learned

  1. Mike Cannon-Brookes feels conflicted about his private jet. The Australian billionaire known for his stance on climate change, said he has a deep internal conflict over the use of his private jet for travel. 
  2. Defense spending doesn’t necessarily mean less money for climate. Germany’s Greens made a risky bet to ask for more climate funding in a debt-spending package intended to boost military aid for Ukraine. It appears to have paid off. 
  3. Barbados’ prime minister is inspired by Germany. Mia Mottley says the incoming chancellor’s “whatever it takes” approach to keeping the economy stable while increasing defense spending is the kind of energy she’s bringing to climate adaptation funding. 
  4. Calpers is labeling Chevron and Saudi Aramco as climate investments. The US’s largest pension fund has classified more than $3 billion of holdings in oil drillers, coal miners, and other major polluters as climate-friendly investments, new analysis finds.
  5. Zara outfits now have a higher carbon footprint. The annual report of Inditex SA, the Spanish owner of the apparel chain, shows that its transport-related carbon emissions grew twice as fast as product volumes.
A shopper with a Zara shopping bag in A Coruna, Spain on March 12. Photographer: Brais Lorenzo/Bloomberg

Worth your time 

Brazil is planning to launch an ambitious $125 billion fund to protect tropical forests when it hosts the COP30 climate summit this November. The investment vehicle is part of a broad strategy to turn the talks into action after a US withdrawal from climate diplomacy threatens to slow progress. It’s also one way officials are looking to make COP30 a landmark event. The summit, being held in the Amazonian city of Belém, marks the 10th anniversary of the historic Paris Agreement. Yet it also follows a recent series of lackluster UN summits that have added to a sense of backsliding. Read more to learn how Brazil is working to prove that multilateralism can still address climate change amid geopolitical distractions and the US retreat.

An environmentally protected area near Sao Felix do Xingu, Para state, Brazil. Photographer: Jonne Roriz/Bloomberg

Weekend listening

In the time since she became Prime Minister of Barbados in 2018, Mia Mottley has become known as a moral force for action on climate change. The Bridgetown Initiative, which she launched at COP26 in 2021, transformed the conversation around climate finance – pushing rich nations to do more to support developing countries struggling with the impact of climate change. But as the US retreats from climate action, her bold vision faces new challenges. At the Sustainable Energy for All Global Forum in Barbados, she tells Akshat Rathi why she remains optimistic. Mottley also spoke about the role of pragmatism in tackling the climate challenge.

Listen now, and subscribe on Apple,  Spotify, or YouTube to get new episodes of Zero every Thursday.

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Demonstrators hold signs during a "Stand Up For Science" rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on March 7, 2025.  Photographer: Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg

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