Hello and welcome to the Spectators podcast. I'm Kate Andrews. Coming up, you're going to hear the

conversation we held at the Spectators' Alternative Conference back at the end of September. The panel

was kindly sponsored by Drax and focus on the Green Revolution, how technological advancements can level up

Britain sustainably. Now, because of the nature of the event, this was a live

broadcast, some of the audio is not as top quality as you might usually expect from our

spectator podcasts, but we don't let top quality get in the way of top content. Enjoy the podcast.

Welcome to everybody watching from your office or your home to the Spectator's Alternative Conference.

This session, The Green Revolution, how technological advancements can level up Britain sustainably, is kindly sponsored by Drax. The UK, of course, was the first major economy

to set a net zero carbon emission target, but our work is certainly cut out for us. 23 million

homes are fueled by natural gas and will need upgrading, while nearly

90% of vehicles on UK roads are still powered by petrol and diesel. So reaching net zero

is going to require big changes on our part, but we'll also need to sustain our standards of living

and our quality of life. Indeed, life needs to get better, not worse, under the new guidance or

rules or changes that come into play. And as we make this transition, we also, of course,

can never forget that we are recovering from severe economic damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,

which has been inflicted upon the whole world.

And we have an opportunity in the UK to potentially merge the leveling up agenda with

green solutions and the COVID recovery.

The government has yet to establish a clear path as to how it will achieve net zero by 2050.

But we know that new technology, potentially

greenhouse gas removal technologies along with others, will need to play a role in leading

the charge to carbon neutrality. So to discuss what is not a small topic, we've brought

...