Despite waning support for climate action in the face of rising carbon emissions, Britain’s Labour government has stuck to its guns. It’s the only major economy still targeting a zero-carbon energy sector, despite the crippling costs involved.

As the world breached the 1.5C target in 2025, possibly fueled by the Hunga-Tonga volcanic eruption, many governments followed the US example and abandoned the Paris Agreement. Besides the fact that the target wasn’t achievable, a hard dose of realpolitik was forcing leaders to put economic growth ahead of pseudoscientific ideology.

But not the UK. Even as the EU sought to relax ESG regulations in the face of economic decline, Britain wouldn’t back down. Having successfully removed coal from the national grid, the Labour government doubled down on Net Zero ambitions, with a GBP 200 billion plan. All while promising growth through infrastructure expansion, like at Heathrow airport.

Key to reducing emissions, while still relying on natural gas, was the idea of carbon capture and storage. You can burn natural gas to generate ‘clean’ electricity, if you trap the CO2 and store it underground, or repurpose it to make things like sustainable aviation fuel. The technology works and is proven, but scaling it up is massively expensive.

Now Britain is the shining star in the Net Zero firmament, refusing to join the countless backsliders who have watered down their decarbonization policies, or simply left them to become defunct, words on paper alone. The UK’s not for turning.

But Britain is counting the cost. The UK has by far the highest electricity prices in the region, and fiscal stimulus has pushed taxes and national debt to new heights. As the next election approaches, will Britons vote to keep their Hero status, or finally turn their backs on Net Zero?