Staff writer Lillian Hubbard Sawyer analyses the impact of climate change scepticism in the UK and its exacerbation by right-wing news organisations.
To reach the 2050 net-zero target, as outlined in the Paris Agreement, the media industry in the UK must productively engage with international climate change doctrine and commit to fact over fanaticism. This is imperative to the deceleration of climate change globally and will act as a viable model for other countries with similar challenges, such as the United States.
Figure 1 – Carbon Brief analysed how opposition to and support for climate action have changed in various UK newspaper editorials since 2011.
Earlier this year, Carbon Brief found that “nearly 100 UK newspaper editorials opposed climate action in 2025.” This represents a shift away from ‘evidence scepticism‘, which contests the science behind climate change, towards ‘response scepticism’, an attitude which questions the actions taken to address it. Research suggests that whilst ‘evidence scepticism’ in the UK media is declining, ‘response scepticism is on the rise’. This has not occurred organically; climate scepticism is institutional and driven by broader political and ideological strategies. This is evident in the UK media coverage of net-zero targets, framed as separate from climate change and, therefore, unnecessary.
Figure 2– Dr James Painter et al. compared the number of articles mentioning net zero alongside climate change in various UK newspaper articles since 2018.
Net Zero is the state in which the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) released into the atmosphere is equal to the amount that is removed. This can be achieved by capturing and storing GHGs from the atmosphere and, most crucially, reducing emissions.
Although contested in the media, the necessity of net zero to stop global warming is now understood to be an irrefutable scientific fact.
Much of the ‘climate scepticism’ in recent years is centred around the necessity of net-zero policies. As outright climate change denial is declining, the UK media has shifted away from directly contesting the science behind net zero.
Instead, these policies are increasingly discussed in isolation from broader conversations about climate change. This is known as the ‘decoupling‘ of net zero from climate change, and it is problematic because it frames net-zero targets as a political preference rather than as scientifically necessary. In a closed conference on the 8th October, 2025, leader of the Conservative party Kemi Badenoch declared herself as a net-zero sceptic, but not a climate change sceptic. The prevalence of oxymoronic statements such as this in British politics and media ultimately risks selective support for climate action.
Dr James Painter, a research associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, analysed the discussion of ‘net zero’ across nine national newspapers. He calculated the number of articles that mention ‘net zero’ alongside broader discussion of climate change, relative to those that mention ‘net zero’ in isolation.
The results of this study concluded that the past decade has seen a growing number of articles discussing net-zero policies without mentioning ‘climate change’, the ‘climate crisis’, or ‘global warming’ at all.
Figure 3– King’s College London, in collaboration with IPSOS UK, polled different parties’ voters on their support for net zero by 2050.
Differing Support for Net-Zero Policies
King’s College London conducted a study on the public attitudes toward climate change policy, mapping support and opposition across age groups, political parties, and between genders.
This study showed that support for net zero is declining and, on average, only 50% of the UK population feels confident in their understanding of the term. This is reflective of the broader issue of misinformation surrounding climate change. At the House of Commons in September 2025, the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee made clear the significance of misinformation in contributing to an “information vacuum that has been filled by certain actors” seeking to disseminate the idea that net zero is arbitrary.
King’s College London polled supporters of various political parties on their support for net-zero policies, as well as climate activism. This study shows that 61% of those who voted for the Green Party in 2024 support reaching net zero before 2050, and a further 28% by 2050. Reform and Conservative voters, by contrast, are most likely to be in opposition to net-zero policies. 29% of Reform UK voters and 26% of Conservative voters believe that the UK does not need to reach net zero by 2050, and a further 38% and 15%, respectively, do not support reaching net zero at all.
On average, 34% of Green Party voters would describe themselves as climate activists. However, only 5% of Conservative voters and 2% of Reform UK voters describe themselves as climate activists, whilst 13% and 28% are climate sceptics.
Misinformation Surrounding Net-Zero Policies Appears More Often in Right-Leaning Newspapers
Ahead of the 2024 UK General Election, research was conducted into the ways in which different newspaper readers vote. The findings show that right-leaning newspapers such as The Daily Mail and The Sun were among the most-read newspapers by Reform UK and Conservative voters. As illustrated in Figure 2, these newspapers are among the least likely to mention ‘net zero’ alongside a broader discussion of climate change. It is arguably no coincidence that those most likely to be critical of net-zero policies primarily consume media that not only shares this opposition, but also offers little to no scientific context to the term. This is exacerbated by the pervasiveness of misinformation in the UK media surrounding net zero.
In December 2025, NESO published a report analysing the costs of different pathways to net zero. These findings, alongside others, have been repeatedly misrepresented, most notably by right-leaning papers and politicians such as The Daily Mail and Reform UK’s Manifesto. Earlier this year, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a right-wing think tank, published a pamphlet wrongly claiming that the cost of reaching net zero “totals some £7,604 billion (£7.6 trillion) before carbon costs.” Multiple newspapers used these figures in their reports of NESO’s findings. Fundamentally, IEA’s claims are inaccurate, as they are based on the faulty assumption that, in the absence of net-zero targets, the UK will spend nothing on the energy sector. Using the same flawed calculation methods as the IEA, the UK will spend £7.2 trillion on not reaching net zero.
As well as exaggerating the cost of net zero for the country, these media outlets have suggested that individual households will also be expected to spend exorbitant amounts of money to achieve net-zero targets. Calum Muirhead, a journalist working for the Daily Mail, wrote an article claiming that “an estimated £585 billion [is] to be forked out by ordinary households to pay for the move … towards eco-friendly heat pumps.” This figure is the sum of all expenditure in the Residential sector, including energy efficiency, heating costs, gas costs, and retrofit costs. In NESO’s report, this is not stated to be the burden of the public. This exaggeration places climate change in opposition to other sociopolitical issues, such as the cost of living, which is a direct barrier to individual engagement with climate change.
Figure 4 – The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) analysed the central investment costs associated with limiting global warming to below 2°C or 3 °C.
The Cost of Failing to Meet Net-Zero Targets
Not only is the UK media spreading misinformation about the cost of net zero, but they are wilfully ignoring the very real costs of not meeting these targets.
Looking at Figure 4, the ‘below 2°C scenario’ achieves current net-zero targets, whereas the graph on the right does not. In both cases, the cost of net-zero is the same: 0.4% of Britain’s GDP. By contrast, it is more costly for the UK when temperatures are limited to below 3°C as opposed to below 2°C. The average annual cost associated with climate damages, both direct and indirect, is 0.3% of Britain’s GDP higher in the ‘below 3°C scenario’.
The overall annual costs of both scenarios are identical until the years 2043-2044 (averaging around 0.9% of Britain’s GDP). After this point, the ‘below 3°C scenario’ becomes more expensive. This suggests that although public spending will be more costly in the short-term, meeting these targets reduces overall financial costs.
The Climate Crisis and Information Integrity
Whilst progress has been made to combat climate misinformation, such as the Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change, there is no obligation for states to engage. Ultimately, the UK must follow suit and recognise the institutional drivers of misinformation and take action to mitigate the impact of response scepticism on the nation’s ability to reach net zero.
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