Net Zero's PR Problem—and How to Fix It!
Everything Electric Podcast
The Fully Charged Show
4.8 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 22 September 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this week's episode Imogen talks to Ruban Yogarajah, a Sustainability Partner at FGS Global - a stakeholder strategy firm helping companies and climate groups win support for the energy transition. They discuss why enthusiasm for "net zero" is declining, the messaging crisis that is undermining the clean energy transition and the need to rebuild public trust.
00:00 - Introduction: The Net Zero PR problem
02:01 - Who is Ruban and what does FGS Global do?
04:46 - What the UK public really thinks
06:46 - Why "net zero" doesn't work as a term
09:17 - Perception vs reality on climate costs
11:35 - The messy middle: Transition economics
14:25 - Reframing costs and making them tangible
16:35 - Energy security as a winning message
20:45 - Who should deliver these messages?
23:02 - Learning from EVs and practical technology adoption
27:05 - Local opportunities and green jobs
30:25 - Rebranding and new language
33:15 - Energy security vs fossil fuel myths
37:10 - Fighting misinformation
40:30 - Quick advice for different industries
43:54 - Final thoughts
Why not come and join us at our next Everything Electric expo: https://everythingelectric.show
Check out our sister channel Everything Electric CARS: https://www.youtube.com/@fullychargedshow
Support our StopBurningStuff campaign: https://www.patreon.com/STOPBurningStuff
Become an Everything Electric Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fullychargedshow
Become a YouTube member: use JOIN button above
Buy the Fully Charged Guide to Electric Vehicles & Clean Energy : https://buff.ly/2GybGt0
Subscribe for episode alerts and the Everything Electric newsletter: https://fullycharged.show/zap-sign-up/
Visit: https://FullyCharged.Show
Find us on X: https://x.com/Everyth1ngElec
Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/officialeverythingelectric
To partner, exhibit or sponsor at our award-winning expos email: [email protected]
Everything Electric FARNBOROUGH - Farnborough International - 11th & 12th October 2025
Everything Electric MELBOURNE - Melbourne Showgrounds 14th, 15th & 16th November 2025
Everything Electric SYDNEY - Sydney Olympic Park 6th, 7th & 8th March 2026
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to another episode of the Everything Electric podcast, where today we're asking a big question. |
| 0:14.5 | Is net zero actually working or does it have a major PR problem? |
| 0:19.5 | And the reason that we're talking about this is that whilst public support for tackling climate change might still be strong, |
| 0:25.1 | most people, after all, do still accept the science. |
| 0:28.0 | The story around Net Zero has become increasingly fragile. |
| 0:32.8 | Cynicism about the government's ability to deliver massive public overestimation of the personal costs |
| 0:38.3 | and a deep distrust of politicians have created the perfect storm. The debate has become |
| 0:44.3 | polarised, trapping the net zero debate between two abstract narratives, the government's grand |
| 0:49.4 | growth opportunity and the opposition's catastrophic economic burden. Now joining me for this episode is Ruben |
| 0:56.1 | Yoga Raja, sustainability partner at FGS Global, and we're going to be delving into what the public |
| 1:01.6 | really think about clean energy, why the current message isn't working, and what do we need to do |
| 1:07.7 | to rebuild public trust and keep our clean energy ambitions on track? |
| 1:13.1 | All of that to come, but first, a very quick advert break. |
| 1:17.3 | Our three free YouTube channels on EVs and Clean Tech are funded by our fun-packed, |
| 1:22.7 | test-drive-tastic events in Farnborough, London, the South West, the North, Melbourne and Sydney, |
| 1:29.0 | and next up, Everything Electric, Farnborough, and new for UK viewers. |
| 1:32.6 | You can now buy a battery EV and much more at everythingelectric.com. |
| 1:37.6 | Now, back to the episode. |
| 1:40.0 | Reuben, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. |
| 1:42.4 | I am so excited about this conversation, |
| 1:45.4 | and we've been talking before we clicked record. And every time you said something interesting, |
| 1:49.4 | I had to sort of stop myself because I was like, no, no, no, no, no, we must, must save this for |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Fully Charged Show, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Fully Charged Show and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.