Net Zero Governance: Evidence Hub
Overview
The Net Zero Governance programme is a major British Academy review over three years that analysed evidence and insights from SHAPE disciplines to understand why and how good democratic governance is crucial to navigating the complex, nuanced decisions around net zero, while maximising the opportunities it presents. This Evidence Hub brings together all the written outputs that have contributed to the programme as a resource for researchers and policymakers.
The evidence hub below includes the following:
- The critical role of governance for decarbonisation at pace: learning the lessons from SHAPE research (2025 Journal of the British Academy Thematic Collection)
- Net zero governance from the standpoint of leaders and publics (2025 discussion papers)
- Implementing effective and just net zero policies (funded research 2023-24)
- Policy and practice roundtables (2022-25)
- Governance factors on the road to net zero (2023 Journal of the British Academy Special Edition)
- Shared understandings of a sustainable future (2022 small research & scoping projects)
The critical role of governance for decarbonisation at pace
This article introduces the thematic collection, ‘The critical role of governance for decarbonisation at pace: learning the lessons from SHAPE research’, edited by Sarah Birch, Hilary Graham, Andrew Jordan, Tim O’Riordan, and Henry Richards.
With confirmation that global average temperatures in 2024 exceeded 1.5° above pre-industrial levels, and near continuous news of extreme weather events around the world, there seems little to dispute the characterisation of UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, that ‘every country must deliver and play their rightful part’. Guterres and many others point to the urgency of action, even though it is palpably sluggish.
In the collection, we argue that SHAPE (Social Science, Humanities, and the Arts for People, Economy and environment) research provides the essential lynchpin for policymakers to understand people, societies, economies, and cultures and what works in practice to bring about the transformative changes needed to respond to this challenge.
The common thread of this collection is governance. Governance provides the political and civic mechanisms to deliberate and make inclusive decisions based on evidence and collective judgements about our shared future.
The collection features crucial policy insights drawn from SHAPE research to advance the principles and practices of consensual governance, and to help navigate ‘an exit off the highway to climate hell’.
Journal articles
- Mission Led government or Radical Incrementalism for electricity and Net Zero?
- The Grangemouth oil refinery closure: lessons for ‘just transition’ governance
- Guiding principles for subnational investment in the age of Climate Emergency
- Citizen deliberation in Net Zero governance: learning lessons and looking forward
Net zero governance from the standpoint of leaders and publics (2025 discussion papers)
A series of six discussion papers commissioned from SHAPE researchers to understand net zero governance from the standpoint of leaders and publics.
Lively methods for net-zero governance and public engagement
Authors: Karen Henwood, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University and Nick Pidgeon, School of Psychology, Cardiff University
Many current approaches to net zero and public engagement render the temporal implications of change for people and communities as essentially invisible. This paper demonstrates how creative design techniques and methods drawn from SHAPE-based research can help address this gap, through augmenting public engagement with situated, active, and energised aspects of human experience as lived in and through time—something referred to here as human and societal ‘liveliness’.
Creative design techniques are presented from public engagement projects on local energy system change, domestic heating decarbonisation, and community energy. Liveliness as something that comes with temporal understanding can and should be made integral to public engagements for net zero.
Placing communities at the centre of place-based approaches to decarbonisation: lessons for effective engagement and governance
Authors: Zoe P. Robinson, Keele University; Adam J. Peacock, University of Exeter; Tom Morton, Imperial College London; Richard I. Waller, Keele University; and Ryan Langley, Keele University.
Place-based decarbonisation provides the holistic and systemic approach needed to address net-zero imperatives, while also maximising wider social, economic, and environmental co-benefits.
Place-based decarbonisation projects vary in stage of delivery, scale, and scope. These facets have implications for engaging effectively with communities (who are often fringe stakeholders with less institutional influence) and developing mechanisms for community participation in decision-making for the areas in which they live.
Effective community-centric approaches can help ensure that place-based decarbonisation contributes to a genuinely just transition, with improvements to the lives of local communities at its heart, by enabling community participation in identifying existing problems, priorities, and solutions.
Using an insider-perspective, this paper reflects on the delivery of a community-centric approach in two place-based decarbonisation projects of different scales, scopes, and stages of delivery.
Drawing from these comparisons, a transferable model and key principles for effective community-centric design in place-based decarbonisation projects are outlined, along with key policy recommendations to ensure that effective community-centric approaches are at the heart of place-based decarbonisation, contributing more holistic and participatory governance to accelerate decarbonisation and deliver on wider outcomes.
Insights from Greater Manchester's Local Area Energy Planning (LAEP) and Beyond
Authors: Bonnie Boyana Buyuklieva, Veronica-Nicolle Hera, Maria Wood – University College London
Achieving the UK’s net zero goal requires rapid and effective action. However, while UK policymakers agree on the importance of this target, there seems to be much less agreement on the best route to meeting this.
This is why Local Area Energy Planning (LAEP) has proved an important and promising policy tool. It uses a data-driven, whole-system approach to understand the most cost-effective way of delivering net zero in a particular region.
This paper examines the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s (GMCA) ten district-level LAEPs developed in 2021 based on various interviews with Local Authority (LA) and Combined Authority (CA) level stakeholders.
By generating practical insights, such as a review of existing LAEP experiences and brand-new guidelines on designing and tailoring LAEPs to different geographies and governance structures, findings from this case study are relevant to a broad policy audience including, leaders across other CAs, such as the GLA and the WMCA, and LAs within the UK who are grappling with the challenges and opportunities that LAEPs provide in the context of establishing trust and working collaboratively towards the net zero goals.
Aligning local and national governance for net zero—what is the potential for locally determined contributions?
Authors: Sophy Bristow, Dr Karen Barrass, Harriet Harthan, Kevin Fenning, Benedict Pery, Matthew Cresswell, Caitlin Cutts, Mateusz Grzegorczyk, Judith Hannam—Centre for Climate Engagement, Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge
The UK has published its Seventh Carbon Budget and Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), setting out the nation’s contribution to climate change.
Despite recognition by government of the importance of the local government role in delivering Britain’s climate commitments, local government remains relatively constrained in pursuing emissions reduction locally.
One challenge is that local authorities do not have ‘locally determined contributions’ (LDCs), which are based on a scientifically robust approach and which mirror the NDC. This creates challenges in terms of planning and prioritising investment, and engaging with partners and government funding.
This paper outlines insights from the development of an LDC guidance framework for local authorities, which we are using to inform the next iteration of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s Climate Change Strategy.
The paper brings together early findings and summarises progress to date. The research highlights a consensus on the need for scientifically robust, locally tailored emissions targets aligned with national goals, to support local plan-making, and enhance local stakeholder buy-in and private sector investment.
It also identifies significant challenges, including: limited local government capacity, inconsistent methodologies, and outdated data. This highlights an urgent need for more accessible and flexible tools to support local climate planning and implementation.
Governance of regional net zero enterprise support for SMEs: three imperatives
Authors: Fred Paterson, University of Derby and Muhammad Mazhar, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University.
The UK’s 5.7 million Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) account for one third of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Despite various policy efforts over the last decade to drive down SME greenhouse gas emissions in line with the UK’s 2050 net zero target, funded enterprise support provision has reached as few as 1 per cent of SMEs with variable effectiveness.
While many SMEs have adopted basic carbon, energy, and waste reduction measures, few have embedded foundational practices, such as carbon footprinting, environmental management, and sustainability planning.
SME leaders are confused about the range, complexity, and availability of enterprise support for net zero, and scepticism towards policy is common.
This Discussion Paper argues that to reach net zero by 2050, three imperatives must be addressed:
- SME demand for net zero transformation must be radically accelerated.
- Net zero must be integrated in mainstream SME business support and significantly better differentiated.
- Regions need to build system intelligence to better commission, design, deliver, and govern local net zero support.
Re-framing commercial law to support net zero governance
Authors: Hedvig Schmidt, Stephanie Law and Liang Zhao, University of Southampton
Commercial law cuts across various private law fields. This paper argues that there is a need to break down the silos of legal frameworks within commercial law that pigeonhole sustainability according to sector; we assert that legal mechanisms for reaching net zero across these diverse sectors must be understood as a common objective.
We aim to identify policy objectives reflecting existing common themes, that can be adopted across commercial law, to provide better guidance for policymakers, particularly in harmonising legislation supporting the net-zero transition.
By aligning the net-zero goal with the traditional objectives of commercial law, this paper argues that greater legal support can be achieved for net-zero governance.
Commercial business activities have significant impacts on the protection of public interests, including environmental safeguarding, sustainability, and human rights; net zero needs to be embedded within the commercial legal framework as an objective cutting across its regulatory fields.
Implementing effective and just net zero policies (funded research 2023-24)
This project generated practical insights about how to improve multi-level governance for net zero across the UK and in England in particular.
The research approach looked to integrate different disciplines and different societal actors to arrive at practical insights and policy pathways to unlock the capabilities of local authorities, businesses, and others to realise progress towards net zero locally.
Two initial publications summarise the findings, with further publications anticipated:
Opinion polling
The Academy commissioned Opinium in April 2025 with 10 questions as part of its Omnibus poll. The results are set out in the short summary report and full data tables as below.
Policy and practice roundtables (2022-25)
Understanding the role of publics in decarbonisation
This note summarises a 2024 roundtable discussion co-chaired by Professor Andy Jordan FBA and Professor Paul Monks, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. The discussion considered the conditions for public support on net zero, what we know works, the importance of upstream actions, and what sort of institutional structures are needed to draw on timely SHAPE evidence.
Considering the role of people and institutions in net zero policy in the UK
In March 2022, the British Academy convened representatives from government, academia, civil society, and business over a three-part roundtable series to discuss the role of various underpinning elements of a people-centred shift to net zero.
The roundtable discussions were chaired by British Academy Fellows and aimed to contribute insights and a broad range of perspectives on the drivers of net zero policy.
Governance factors on the road to net zero (2023 Journal of the British Academy Special Edition)
Editorial: Governance factors on the road to net zero
In 2021, the UK Government released its Net Zero Strategy, which laid out how the country would meet its legally binding carbon-based emissions target of no net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Recent developments have shown the importance of governance in the delivery of this target. These include the 2022 Committee on Climate Change progress report to Parliament and the 2023 independent review, led by Chris Skidmore MP (a former Energy Minister), which outlined that there was further work to be done at all governance levels and that all relevant stakeholder groups who will be involved in or are affected by the transition should be mobilised to ensure that the net zero target is met.
Implementing net zero affordable housing – towards a human-centred approach
This paper reviews the UK Net Zero Strategy in conjunction with the decarbonisation of the affordable housing sector, with a focus on the key stakeholders involved in the decarbonisation process.
Viewing it from a socio-technical perspective, this paper discusses three overarching groups of people in delivering low-carbon affordable housing — affordable housing providers, the supply chain and residents — highlights the range of issues and factors that policymakers should be considering; provides sign-posts to evidence; and discusses some critical gaps, barriers and transition risk factors in delivering net zero policies and potential mitigating strategies that can be learned from exemplary projects.
The conclusion of this paper proposes a preliminary structure for a five-step place-based, human-centred framework to implement net zero in the affordable housing sector, emphasising the importance of long-term legislative certainty and funding, localised decision-making with stakeholder engagement, including approaches such as communities of practice, a soft landings framework, and developing monitoring and evaluation matrices.
Achieving net zero goals in residential buildings
This paper discusses recent evidence of a large, unrealised energy savings potential in the UK residential sector. It discusses authoritative policy reviews critiquing the Net Zero Strategy and the Heat and Buildings Strategy as well as the economic literature on the energy-efficiency gap.
These sources point to four main potential explanations for the lack of progress towards net zero in residential buildings in the UK:
- Historical and current untargeted subsidies to energy prices (e.g., energy price guarantee).
- Poor scheme implementation and lack of workforce training
- Regulatory barriers such as planning restrictions and lack of policy coordination across stakeholders
- Split incentives.
To overcome these barriers, the paper recommends better access to data to foster evidence-based policy-making and support for innovative, local-authority-led projects.
Place-based business support towards net zero: enabling through the place-policy-practice nexus
The prevailing approach of policymakers to the design and delivery of net zero business support remains focused on financial economic growth. This approach limits the role of businesses in leading societal transformation towards a sustainable future.
Although opportunities for businesses to transform so that they remain financially viable and resilient may emerge, support and policy innovation are needed to enable businesses to navigate the net zero transition.
Place-based policies are one way of ensuring localities, cities and regions respond effectively to the economic and social challenges of the transition. Despite place being identified as one of five foundations of national and local industrial strategies, business support provision across the regions remains largely ‘place-blind’.
Support programmes are often generic in their design, scope and delivery mechanisms, and downplay the challenges businesses face when engaging with the net zero transition.
This article critically reviews the policy articulation and the state of net zero business support from the place-based perspective. By applying place–policy–practice nexus thinking, gap analysis of net zero support is undertaken, and resolutions are offered.
The article calls for a deeper reflection of place characteristics in policy discourse, local strategies and policy mixes. This requires concerted efforts from the government, support agencies, universities and businesses to develop a shared understanding of the growth opportunities and risks of the net zero transition relative to place.
This includes the development of representative net zero governance mechanisms and addressing the growing demand for net zero skills.
A people-centred approach is needed to meet net zero goals
To meet net zero goals, more drastic action is needed than is acknowledged by most policymakers, posing a major social challenge that will impact many aspects of people’s lives.
This paper emphasises the importance of a people-centred approach for policy makers to achieve net zero effectively and rapidly while being alert to citizens’ needs and concerns. We advocate a comprehensive and inclusive public engagement strategy, discussing insights on four key questions to guide policymakers in developing successful engagement strategies.
- How do climate-friendly social transformations happen?
- How can behavioural change for net zero be supported?
- How can people be involved in decision-making on net zero?
- How does climate change intersect with other societal challenges?
We conclude with clear policy recommendations: government leadership at all levels (national, devolved, local), underpinned by a public engagement strategy for net zero, is needed in addition to fair and consistent policies that are transparent about the scale of action needed.
Going down the local: the challenges of place-based net zero governance
Place-based decarbonisation is emerging as a significant element in the UK government’s net zero agenda, specifically through central government devolution deals.
Such localised governance has the potential to reap social and economic benefits for communities whilst also potentially delivering on net zero goals.
However, pre-existing institutional constraints and unresolved tensions remain, such as the uneven distribution of initiatives across areas and the fiscal limitations within local authorities. These could potentially exacerbate regional inequality rather than promote a just transition.
This report characterises the current governance regimes and challenges to net zero delivery in four parts of the Midlands: Coventry, Nottingham, Leicester and Staffordshire. It highlights variation in local-scale action and identifies the constraints to multi-scalar governance for net zero.
It recommends cultivating policy innovation, particularly to align planning with the net zero transition and identifies the potential role of regulatory sandboxes to this end as well as community ownership.
Shared understandings of a sustainable future (2022 small research & scoping projects)
A series of nine small research and scoping projects funded by the British Academy as part of the scoping phase of the Net Zero Governance programme.