The Church of Zero Carbon

Poor old carbon, the second most abundant element in our bodies. A key part of ourselves and the backbone for global transformation in the 20th century. Without it, no moon landing, and no central heating.

With newly converted zeal companies and governments herald carbon negative innovations and 'net zero' commitments. To pacify environmental guilt over our purchasing decisions we are ushered into the arms of low carbon holidays and 'climate-friendly' fridges. We invest in machinery to cleanse our atmosphere of sinful carbon and bury it in the ground (did the engineers not get the memo about trees?). And we plant forests to neutralise our 'footprint'.

Liberal privilege? Carbon shaming? Yes, I'm a hypocrite too with historical debts. I'll probably fly somewhere again and I own a diesel van.

The issue with the demonisation of carbon is that it facilitates a business-as-normal economy. Carbon is not the problem; we literally can't live without it. Using carbon as the scapegoat of climate change gives permission for the continuation of the extractive practices which underpin economic expansion. Remove carbon and politicians can safely push growth because it is 'net zero' or 'carbon neutral'.

This neat sidestep means we are manipulated into believing the root cause of climate change can be solved by carbon-free technology. This is to miss the point that climate change is a symptom and a predictable consequence of growth. Whilst economic expansion is the name of the game there will continue to be collateral damage; right now a warming atmosphere is the hot potato. And because the solutions for it can be monetised we are witnessing political and corporate momentum in its favour.

The infinitely less palatable choice is to move towards a different economic model, one decoupled from GDP. How we get there is a different topic, and certainly one without a silver bullet. For now however, we can understand that carbon is not the enemy.