We analysed 73,000 articles and found the UK media is divorcing ‘climate change’ from net zero
In October 2024, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch declared herself a “net zero sceptic”, but “not a climate sceptic”. Most recently she doubled down, announcing plans to scrap the 2030 ban on new petrol cars in a 900-word Sunday Telegraph article that did not mention climate change once.
Badenoch is not an outlier. She’s following a similar script to one increasingly found in the British press.
James Painter – Senior Teaching Associate Climate programme‘s, new research reveals a surprising trend: the linguistic divorcing of “net zero” from “climate change”. He and his colleague Will Vowell analysed more than 73,000 articles across nine UK media outlets and found that the two terms – once closely linked – are becoming more detached.
Read more in The Conversation