Policymakers and practitioners need to rethink how our journey to net zero is communicated, structured and resourced. In a world where ‘us versus them’ is weaponised for party and media gain, there’s more that unites us than divides us in this journey to net zero.
The UK’s journey to net zero is often framed as a technical challenge, a race that has been designed by and for government and industry. In practice, this journey is fundamentally about people, power and participation. The actions taken today will affect almost every aspect of life – our homes, our energy systems, our livelihoods, our health, how we get around, and so much more. In recent years, new democratic possibilities have widened participation in this journey to reflect this. Yet, these spaces often focus on one aspect in isolation, which is too limited to deliver the justice-centred transformation that society wants and needs.
To achieve this transformation, we need to build sustained infrastructure for participation, one that connects knowledge and deliberation to real-world change.
Beyond a one-size-fits-all transition
Communities around the UK have different starting points, needs and priorities in this transition, but we cannot achieve a sustainable and transformed future by working in isolation. This is particularly urgent now. The decisions made today will shape who benefits, who bears the cost, and whether public trust is strengthened or eroded. Without embedded spaces for connection, deliberation and action that is grounded in justice, there is a real risk that net zero deepens existing inequalities, rather than addressing them.
The UK’s transition to net zero is unfolding against a backdrop of deep social and economic inequality, regional disparities, and declining public trust. Decisions made are reshaping the lives we lead, but these changes are not being experienced equally. For example, in Northeast England, a historically thriving industrial hub with opportunity for green sector employment through solar, wind and hydropower, the number of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) is consistently high. At the same time, there is growing recognition that the public participation is needed for this transition to work (see Energising Britain, Local Power Plans) and there is a strong public mandate for action (see Climate Barometer’s opinion tracker).
Many promising mechanisms have emerged to enable this, recognising that this journey to net zero is not just about reducing emissions, but improving people’s lives. For example, Threads in the Ground’s carbon heritage project engages local colliery communities in conversations about their coal legacy and climate futures in the Northeast, respecting the past while building hope for the future. Carbon Coop’s Levenshulme area-based retrofit scheme is trialling the savings and benefits of a street-by-street approach to home retrofit, supporting social cohesion and improving energy efficiency. Horsforth Climate Action is supporting primary school teachers to embed climate change education in their curriculum, empowering current and future generations to be part of this journey. The list could go on, but there are pockets of hope around the UK.
The opportunity now is to mobilise these mechanisms towards a shared vision for the future, accelerating justice-oriented action that unites communities around the UK. To reach this future, participation needs to move beyond one-off commissions to inform specific decisions at a precise moment in time. These processes are designed to produce recommendations but rarely shape implementation or accountability over time. They risk becoming symbolic - valuable for legitimacy but disconnected from reality. They also risk overlooking the lived realities of inequality, where decisions about housing, energy, transport and health are constrained by income, tenure and social infrastructure.
From consultation to collaboration: The JUST Practice Builders’ Network
The approach of the JUST Centre supports this shift from consultation to collaboration, from short-term engagement to long-term relationships between people and places – particularly those whose experiences have been overlooked or excluded. At the heart of our agenda is the emphasis integration of social justice, participation and sustainability outcomes.
The Practice-Builders’ Network is one example of how we will be delivering this. Rather than convening for a single deliberative event, we will bring together diverse practitioners working across the areas of life that will be affected by this journey – changemakers, community organisers, researchers, service providers – through a sustained, cohort-based programme. By enabling peer learning, reflective practice, and collaborative action, we are working to bridge the gap between knowledge-generation, lived experience, policy design and implementation.
This model reflects the wider culture and principles of the JUST Centre:
- Participation as core infrastructure: Embedding engagement with diverse communities as ongoing, institutional practice, rather than a one-off exercise
- Place-sensitive transformation: Recognising that change happens differently for different communities, shaped by local conditions and relationships
- Power and justice: Addressing structural inequalities and ensuring that diverse voices are not only heard, but influential
- Interdisciplinary collaboration: Recognising, valuing and connecting different forms of knowledge – explicit, implicit, procedural and tacit
It also highlights a critical gap in current approaches: the lack of connective tissue between deliberation and delivery. This is just the beginning of the Practice-Builders’ Network. We have planted the seeds towards a JUST future and now we will be nurturing the conditions for growth, opening applications for our next cohort later this year, before launching our innovation funding for bold, collaborative approaches that engage our Practice-Builders’ from the end of 2027.
How to sustain this growing momentum
There’s a role for everyone to play in turning this moment into a movement. We call on:
- Policymakers to think long-term, acting now with future generations in mind. Listen, understand and act with, not for. Build trust and power with communities, don’t hold power over them.
- Funders to move away from risk aversion and take chances on communities. Measure things that matter to people, looking beyond outputs delivered to relationships built, trust enhanced, decisions made in partnership.
- Communities to recognise the valuable knowledge you hold, and remember that systems have been designed to benefit the few, not the many. We’re more powerful together than apart.
Ultimately, the journey to net zero is much more than a technical shift, it’s an opportunity for societal transformation. Delivering it fairly will require new ways of working that are grounded in justice, sensitive to place, and sustained over time.
We’re excited to build on the insight and energy provided by those who joined our first Practice-Builders cohort gathering - and thank those who joined us for sharing their time and knowledge so generously. Over coming weeks, we’ll introduce our 2026 cohort. Watch this space.
