This is CBS I on the World. I'm John Batchel. To London, to Joseph Sternberg, who writes

political economics for the Wall Street Journal editorial page, he's a member of the editorial board.

We're looking very carefully at something that is determinative of economics globally.

That is an ambition for net zero, not only in London, but across much of the European plane, and once upon a time in the

United States for the Biden administration. In fact, Mr. Biden is doing what he can to support

net zero on his way out the door by banning

oil and gas leases offshore in most of the United States. Net zero. What does it mean?

Why is it not blossoming, given the rhetoric that it's had these last years?

Joe, a very good evening to you. What is net zero

and what does it mean for the people of the United Kingdom in Europe? Good evening to you.

Hey, John. Well, net zero has come to mean the ambition to achieve economies whose net carbon

dioxide emissions are zero,

you know, in an annual basis.

And so that would mean that any emissions that you produce

through transport or whatever have to in some way be pulled out of the economy.

And the most efficient way of doing that, the view is, is to not emit at all. So, you know, this is all for purposes

of averting climate change by limiting carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. So net zero has

come to be a shorthand for a whole bunch of environmental policies, you know, mainly geared toward reduction of fossil fuel

usage and, you know, reducing reduction of carbon emissions in general. So that's where you get

the subsidies and mandates related to the transition away from internal combustion engine

autos to electric vehicles.

It's where you get the transition to renewable energy from natural gas or coal.

...