Report of CA-WN Public Meeting 19 March 2026
Our March guest speaker was Caroline Kuzemko, Professor of Political Economy and Climate Change at Warwick University. Professor Kuzemko's areas of focus include the politics of climate policy, energy transition and the geopolitics of phasing out fossil fuels and bringing in clean energy. Her latest book is "Climate Politics: Can't Live With It, Can't Mitigate Without It"1.
The meeting was recorded and is available to watch on YouTube2.
Present: Alan Mawer, Alexina Cassidy, Alison Barlow, Allan Bell, Anissa Beale, Avril Moore, David Garlick, Emma Kendall, Helen Dyson, Hilary Haynes, Jane Wood, Jenny Scully, John Hunt, Leonie Beale, Maria Lee, Martin Coombs, Mick Lorkins, Mike Longman, Paul Slater, Rupert Knowles, Susan Ball
Apologies: Clare Robertson-Marriott, Teresa Cox
Meeting notes
Prof Kuzemko started by summarising the current situation as she sees it:
- There is now no consensus on climate among UK political parties, though support for Net Zero remains high among the general population.
- Reform are using Net Zero as a wedge issue, with Conservatives following suit for political reasons. Both Conservatives and Reform receive support from international and domestic organisations aligned with fossil fuel interests.
- Policy is the key driver of change to emissions - 85% of renewables growth will come from policy.
- There has been strong opposition to climate mitigation from the start. Many countries have fossil fuel based economies, and fossil fuels are not just economically or politically embedded but also socially (we all still use fossil fuel).
- For fossil fuel exporting countries and oil companies climate mitigation is existential. USA and Russia will face extremely uncertain futures if they can’t generate income to support public spending from somewhere other than fossil fuel. Workers in fossil fuel industries will lose their jobs.
- Vested interests can buy big policy teams which communicate very effectively.
- The policy environment is now very noisy as actors who stand to lose a great deal face coal being phased out. The IEA predicts peak demand for oil and gas by 2030.
- Don’t bury heads in the sand. We need to understand the politics of climate change far better. Scientists have been fundamental to understanding of climate change but science doesn’t tell us much about society, politics or people.
- Some groups are starting to experience the effects of climate mitigation and so are receptive to messaging against mitigation.
- Positivity is the only way to get through this - better mitigation policies that provide for fairness in the process of transition. There are examples in Spain, where areas heavily reliant on coal realised they needed to phase coal out; by specifically engaging with affected workers (rather than with their employers) local governments were able to phase out fossil fuel and get re-elected.
- There are lots of positive health outcomes from climate mitigation, but we don’t hear much about these. We can communicate better with a broader range of people.
- The social and economic cost of not mitigating is huge, so avoiding those costs is a positive.
- In summary – better policy and better communications needed to take the sting out of Reform.
This short talk by Prof Kuzemko was followed by a Q&A session, highlights of which were:
- Ask who funded statements such as ‘green policies and phasing out coal are the reason why we are having current problems in the Middle East’.
- Effect of the US/Israel/Iran war - our economy is still dependent on fossil fuel. How do we secure supplies and protect low-income households? When gas prices rose due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine short term affordability was maintained and money put into medium- and long-term strategies to give importing countries greater independence. UK government now frames mitigation policy in terms of energy security.
- Is there a generational divide on climate change? Generally younger generations understand climate change better; there is also a divide based on level of education. However, Reform are starting to drive a wedge into younger generation on gender lines, appealing much more to young men.
- Future role of China. China is slashing the price of solar panels and turbine blades and starting to decarbonise their grid. 80% of their electricity is used for industry – outsourced manufacturing for developed countries. They are also obsessed with energy security and don’t want to import energy. China has a huge impact on the UK’s ability to add renewables at lower cost. Two caveats: in the US, buying renewables is framed as helping international actors, whereas fossil fuels are US produced and patriotic; secondly, working conditions in China are not ideal.
- Effect of the fossil fuel lobby on government policy. The current government are largely resisting; they have delivered the Clean Energy Act, Great British Energy and the warm homes initiative, for example. Notably GB Energy HQ has been put in Aberdeen which will be adversely affected by transition away from oil. But we are not hearing about those things so much because of the ‘noise’.
- Can individuals have an impact? We need all hands on deck at all times, working both top-down and bottom-up. Sometimes it is convenient to make people feel powerless. We can make better choices on cars and food, for example, and it is important to talk about climate mitigation in a non-confrontational way (there are some good climate comedians).
- The Covid pandemic shifted working patterns – do we need disaster to force change? Longer term evidence indicates that there is a tendency to go back to the status quo.