Delighted to have taken up my new position
...
as "House of Lords Afternoon Tea Attendee" after joining the launch of the Digital Leaders & CGI Net Zero 50 List 2024, hosted by John Gummer, Rt Hon The Lord Deben.
As Prof Adam Beaumont DL put it, reaching net zero is a process of trying to be less bad. Now, that process definitely feels ✨ revitalised ✨ with new leadership, new priorities and new inputs, but our goal must remain the same: to reach a future where people and planet can thrive. Digital, with its machine learning, information processing along with its energy & resource usage is an integral part of both our consumption problem and innovation response. Digital transformation and climate adaptation are intrinsically intertwined, and this event offered a great catalysing moment at the start of a new political term to consider the two together, through the lens of the incredible work of the Net Zero 50 honorees.
I can't really top Lord Deben's speech, so I'll share his three takeaways while I nurse my never-ending grudge against sustainability-focused events with limited vegan options (just! one! sandwich! choice! and! no! cake!).
While we must celebrate the incredible shifts we have achieved in a fairly short period, there is more to be done to reach net zero (beyond sandwiches):
👩🏫 We must keep explaining why net zero matters. This isn't just a gimmicky tagline or marketing goal - it's about reducing our planetary impact to nil. With a whole load of new policymakers and power brokers burst onto the scene, from across the ideology spectrum, we need to reassert that the planet transcends party politics: we all live here.
🎉 We need to celebrate what a net zero world ADDS to our lives - a healthier, cleaner, more equitable, sustainable, and all-round nicer future with more opportunities for distributed prosperity. The net zero journey needs to be reframed from what is being reduced, to focus on all the benefits it will bring.
🗣 Net zero has to be discussed in language that people understand. Less jargon, more outcomes and 'what this means for me.' If we want people to engage in these ideas (and through the #ClimateConversations project, we've seen that they want to!), we need to make the pathway into these discussions as clear and barrier-free as possible.
