If it can do it, the country will become the world's first major economy to stop contributing to climate change.Net zero means the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere is no more than the amount taken out.
That puts the UK at the more ambitious end of the range -- and under pressure to deliver concrete policies very, very soon. "The methane created by livestock is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide ... so we will have to reduce meat consumption, but it's unlikely that we will reduce livestock to zero," said Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, which is part of London School of Economics.
"This type of offsetting has a history of failure and is not, according the government's [own] climate advisers, cost efficient," said Doug Parr, the chief scientist at Greenpeace UK. "People are paying for the impacts of climate change through increased risks of coastal flooding, increased risk of land flooding, increased risk of droughts, increased risk of heatwaves," he added.
"I hope we can get to net zero earlier and I hope the Extinction Rebellion will continue to push for that, but we've got to do this whilst improving the quality of people's lives," Ward said.