Net Zero

What can we really do about the climate emergency?

The inconvenient truth is that we are causing the climate crisis with our carbon intensive lifestyles and that fixing – or even just slowing – it will affect all of us. But it can be done.

In Net Zero the economist Professor Dieter Helm addresses the action we would all need to take, whether personal, local, national or global, if we really wanted to stop causing climate change.

Net Zero is Professor Dieter Helm’s measured, balanced view of how we stop causing climate change by adopting a net zero strategy of reducing carbon emissions and increasing carbon absorption. It is a rational look at why the past 30 years efforts has failed and why and how the next 30 years can succeed. It is a vital book for anyone who hears the clamour of Extinction Rebellion and other ecological activists, but wonders what they can actually do.

Reviews

A Nature Book of the Week

‘You should read it’ Julian Glover, Evening Standard

‘The reasons I enjoyed this book are fivefold and I think they are reasons that many readers of this blog would enjoy it too. This book is very clearly written, on an important subject, by someone who knows their stuff, by someone who is a friend of the natural environment and, perhaps most importantly, it challenges my own starting point on this subject.’ Mark Avery

‘Dieter Helm is one of Britain's foremost experts on energy economics and he has written a terrific book on the next agenda item once the Covid emergency has passed. It is also an angry book … A fine overview of our climate policy failures and the options for doing better.’ Sunday Independent

About the author

Professor Dieter Helm is Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford and Official Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford. He specialises in the environment, notably in climate change, biodiversity, water, energy and agriculture. Previous books have included Green and Prosperous Land: A Blueprint for Rescuing the British Countryside, Burn Out: The Endgame of Fossil Fuels, The Carbon Crunch and Natural Capital: Valuing the Planet.
In December 2015, Dieter was reappointed as Independent Chair of the Natural Capital Committee. He is also an Honorary Vice President of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.