It’s telling that as temperatures soar across the country this week, recent polling shows more Britons are hoping a heatwave does not happen than there are those wanting one. The story of our relationship with ‘hot’ weather is changing, and so must our approach to telling the story of the energy transition.  

As the head of UK100, a network founded on ambitious climate targets, I have an uncomfortable admission to make: targets alone are terrible at building public support for the energy transition. While ‘net zero by 2050’ and ‘clean energy superpower by 2030’ may galvanise policymakers, it means little to families struggling with energy bills or businesses grappling with rising costs.  

This realisation has never been more urgent. Nearly half of UK100’s 117 local authority members representing over 60% of the UK population have faced abuse and disruption from campaigns spreading misinformation about climate initiatives. These have ranged from coordinated disruption where meetings have been swarmed in Colchester, to protests in Norfolk and Leeds, and vandalism and death threats in Oxford, with at least 50 UK100 members affected to differing extents.  

We’re in danger of letting fossil fuel proponents and misinformation peddlers paint climate action as an albatross around our necks.  

Yet look around us: the full-fat carbon society was hardly utopia. Kids choking on their walk to school, electricity bills so high we coined the term ‘fuel poverty’, gridlock on our roads. If we don’t have a warm homes plan, we have a cold homes plan. And if we don’t have clean power, we have Putin power.  

The wider benefits revolution 

The solution lies not in abandoning our ambitions, but in reframing them around what actually matters to people. Our new research, Beyond Targets: The Wider Benefits of Climate Action, demonstrates that climate policy becomes more robust and popular when connected to other goals: ending poverty, cutting NHS waiting lists, creating safe streets for children.  

Consider three striking examples from our members. Leeds PIPES district heating network connects homes and businesses to heat via 30 km of steam pipes fed from a local waste to energy plant. The project reduced energy bills by up to 25% for social tenants – around £250 per household per year – whilst creating 430 local jobs, including 36 apprenticeships, and achieving 97% customer satisfaction.  

Cambridgeshire’s retrofit programme to improve public-sector building energy efficiency is upskilling 2,000 local people for well-paid green jobs while saving 500 tonnes of greenhouse gases. The programme catalysed £2.55mn of private sector investment into the local supply chain and established a new training facility that will upskill 2,000 tradespeople over four years, with retrofitted homes saving an average of £320 annually on energy bills.  

Launched in 2021, Birmingham’s clean air zone, which covers the city centre inside the A4540 Middleway, prevents 7,500 hospital visits each year, saving the NHS hundreds of thousands of pounds that can be redirected to cutting waiting lists. Within just one year, roadside pollution fell by 17%, cycling increased by 13%, and 62% of local businesses reported the area had become ‘more appealing to visitors and employees’.  

Behind each statistic lies a business grown, a home improved, a family better off. This is the story the energy sector must learn to tell.  

Our new research demonstrates that climate policy becomes more robust and popular when connected to other goals: ending poverty, cutting NHS waiting lists, creating safe streets for children.

What works at local level 

Local authorities are uniquely positioned to demonstrate these wider benefits. They’re consistently rated as the most trusted tier of government on climate action and, with 82% of UK emissions within their influence, their success in building public consent is vital.  

Take Cardiff Council’s Local Area Energy Plan, which maps precisely what the city needs by 2050: 160,000 heat pumps, 91,000 retrofits, 26,000 EV chargers, 500 MW of rooftop solar. But crucially, it quantifies the wider benefits: 10,000 jobs created and £500mn wiped off collective energy bills. Cardiff isn’t just planning decarbonisation; it’s designing prosperity.  

The policy imperative 

For energy professionals, this evidence offers both opportunity and obligation.  

The government’s Warm Homes Plan nearly fell victim to spending cuts until the sector argued successfully for its triple benefits: good jobs, lower bills and energy security. That victory demonstrates the power of wider benefits thinking when applied strategically.  

The upcoming national public participation strategy on climate action provides another crucial opportunity. Our submission to the Energy Security Committee highlights how effective local engagement builds understanding and support, but only when properly resourced and coordinated across government departments. 

A new framework for action 

Moving beyond targets requires systematic change. We need standardised frameworks for measuring wider benefits, long-term funding that reflects multiple objectives and governance structures that break down departmental silos. Most importantly, we need to embed wider benefits into the definition of ‘value for money’ for public investment.  

The energy sector has the expertise and influence to drive this transformation. Every heat pump installation should be framed as health improvement, not just carbon reduction. Every energy efficiency programme should highlight job creation alongside energy savings. Every renewable energy project should emphasise local economic benefits as well as emission cuts.  

The stakes – like temperatures – couldn’t be higher 

Just as the story of heatwaves has shifted from tabloid ‘scorchers’ to health warnings about staying indoors, we must change how we talk about climate action and the energy transition.  

The old narrative of Brits basking in extreme heat is being replaced by one where people hope heatwaves don’t happen at all. Climate change is making them hotter, longer and more dangerous.  

If we don’t get the energy transition story right, if we cling to targets – that can feel too abstract – rather than tangible benefits, Brits will endure increasingly intense and frequent heatwaves. Unlike the cheerful headlines of the past, that’s not something anyone will be basking in.  

Climate action was always about more than carbon accounting. It’s about creating thriving places powered by clean energy with fresh air to breathe, warm homes to live in and opportunities for good work. By embracing this broader vision, we can rebuild the coalition needed to complete the transformation our communities deserve.  

The choice is ours: continue working to inspire technocrats while alienating voters, or embrace a new narrative that makes the energy transition irresistible because it delivers the future everyone wants to live in. 

The views and opinions expressed in this article are strictly those of the author only and are not necessarily given or endorsed by or on behalf of the Energy Institute.  

• Further reading: ‘UK energy networks evolve with low-carbon heat sources’. District heating networks have been around for a long time but are gradually being upgraded to use a range of low-carbon heat sources, including waste heat and, where available, geothermal energy. Andrew Mourant looks at recent progress in the UK. 
• Heat pumps have been the leading technology candidate to replace gas-fired boilers in the decarbonisation of UK homes for some time. Is there a case for the mass adoption of networked ground source heat pumps, and what are the likely benefits?