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It's in the news: we're decarbonising!

How can journalists help citizens understand what net-zero entails? What it means for them, given their values and livelihoods?
How can journalists help citizens understand what net-zero entails? What it means for them, given their values and livelihoods?
Thursday 25 January 2024 | 1 hour 26 minutes 28 seconds

This event gathers journalists from various backgrounds to discuss the challenges they face in informing and promoting balanced public discussions about decarbonisation, particularly in the context of looming local and general elections. Media coverage of climate change has long centered on alerting the public about, as well as debating and contesting, the dangers of climate change.

Today, history has moved on. The UK public understands this issue is real and urgent; by and large, Britons supports decarbonisation of the economy. Yet, decarbonisation is at once a grand political project – offering the possibility of revamping and redesigning the make-up of infrastructure, technological networks, and land-use, in ways that will increase well-being, health, and possibly the vitality of many local economies – but also a slow process, difficult to understand for the lay person, full of trade offs and uncertainties.