You could take it either way, in fact any of three ways: climate change is now so embedded as an idea with re public that the media no longer highlight it, that net-zero has become so ‘politicised’, or you can wear a tinfoil hat.

In all cases, a growing proportion of articles in UK national newspapers have focussed on net-zero whilst failing to reference climate change a new academic analysis has found. It points to a ‘divorcing’ of climate change from prevention, despite low levels of public understanding around what net-zero means.

In 2018, a year before the UK passed legislation for a net-zero emissions target, the analysis found all articles across nine UK national newspapers mentioning the term net-zero at least three times, including in the headline, also mentioned climate change or a similar term such as ‘global warming’. By 2024, this figure had fallen to 59per cent.

In 2024, over 300 articles mentioned the term net-zero at least three times, including in the headline, without also mentioning 'climate change’ or a similar term.

It comes amidst public confusion and a lack of understanding around the term. Polling from Climate Barometer in April 2025 found 22 per cent of those surveyed wrongly thought net-zero meant ‘producing no carbon emissions at all’.

The analysis, which investigated search results from the Factiva news monitoring tool, was carried out by Dr James Painter of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) at the University of Oxford and was commissioned by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU).

Commenting on the findings, Dr James Painter said: “Our findings show a growing proportion of articles are decoupling net zero from climate change. Many articles where net-zero is both salient and dominant have failed to include any climate context at all

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