The social shaping of net zero policy

Socio-economic turbulence at this scale places a sharp focus on policy interventions that support sustainability transitions. It makes them a "political necessity" (Emden, Evans, and Murphy, 2023) to the success and “justness” of ambitions like Net Zero. Labour's new 'mission-driven government' is a response to this discourse, wrapping narrative around “policy mixes”(Kanger, Sovacool and Noorkõiv, 2020) that identify and articulate systems change in a way that speaks to the public, builds coalitions, outlines a vision for the future, strikes at opportune moments to act (Blesh, 2019), and shapes the directionality of socio-technical systems change (Kanger, Sovacool and Noorkõiv, 2020).

Labour's new 'mission-driven government' is a response to this discourse, wrapping narrative around policy mixes—set of policy goals, strategies, instruments and policy processes (Kanger, Sovacool and Noorkõiv, 2020)—that identify and articulate systems change in a way that speaks to the public, builds coalitions, outlines a vision for the future, strikes at opportune moments to act (Blesh, 2019), and shapes the directionality of socio-technical systems (Kanger, Sovacool and Noorkõiv, 2020). Put simply, missions allow the government “elites” to interface with the “discourse” of the public sphere to galvanise the action, partnerships, risk-taking, and investment from public, private, third-sector, and civil actors required by mission-oriented policy (Mazzucato, 2017) that drives systems change from the bottom up with a top-down directive.

• Socio-economic turbulence at this scale places a sharp focus of public discourse on policy interventions that accelerate and stabilise the broader repercussions of systems change. It makes them a "political necessity" (Emden, Evans, and Murphy, 2023) to the success of political agendas like net zero.
• This social shaping of net zero policy can be seen in labours clean energy mission in an attempt to identify and articulate the 'grand challenge' of net zero in a way that speaks to the public, builds coalitions, outlines a vision for the future and, importantly, strikes at opportune moments to act (Blesh, 2019).
• The clean energy mission has enabled the government "elites" to interface with the "discourse" of the public sphere.

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This social shaping of net zero policy can be seen in Labours clean energy mission as an attempt to leveraging "state infrastructural power" that creates the conditions needed to influence civil society and implement policy interventions (Mann, 1984).

By identifying and articulating the 'grand challenge' of net zero in a way that speaks to the public, builds coalitions, outlines a vision for the future and, importantly, strikes at opportune moments to act (Blesh, 2019), the clean energy mission has enabled the government "elites" to interface with the "discourse" of the public sphere.

And in doing so, created and maintained a positive narrative of change around net zero policymaking. It is designed to galvanize the action, partnerships, risk-taking, and investment from public, private, third-sector, and civil actors required by mission-oriented policy (Mazzucato, 2017) that drives systems change from the bottom up with a top-down directive.

The social shaping of these policies to achieve net zero is really important.

The social shaping of Net Zero as a political agenda is extremely prominent in Labours mission-driven narrative for clean energy. Phrases such as “economic growth”, “cutting bills”, “job creation” and “climate leadership” speaks to a British population frustrated with rising prices and a lack of opportunity.

What this agenda has done is create the space needed to win public confidence in the clean energy mission.

• Setting up Great British energy
• setting up Great British Energy in Aberdeen, a publicly owned company which will drive clean power generation, increasing energy security, boosting jobs, and ensuring UK taxpayers, billpayers and communities reap the benefits of the clean energy transition.