It is surely the new paradigm – that economic recovery from the damage caused by the response to Covid-19 can only be achieved by a fundamental shift towards a zero-emissions future. This is stated as fact – that reducing greenhouse gas emissions to ‘net zero’ by 2035 will be the powerhouse of economic growth – when, of course, it’s just a contention; much like the complementary one that investing in companies that are wonderfully compliant in meeting their economic, social and governance (ESG) commitments will bring excess investment returns.
Perhaps these contentions are stated as fact because they have become the dogma of today’s secular religion – the 21st century’s equivalent of transubstantiation, when opposing cultures will fight wars depending on opposing beliefs that the internal combustion engine hides the piston head of all evil, or that the air expelled from the exhausts of modern combustion-powered cars is purer than the air taken in (almost certainly true in Delhi or in London on a dank November afternoon).