Interview: NPL's Richard Barker on measuring net zero

How can a systems level approach help address the net zero challenge?

A lot of the time people will say “I’m doing something for net zero” but of course the issue is that no single thing on its own can deliver it. Net zero really means the totality of everything that we do. It’s very easy to pursue a particular innovation thinking that it’s a net zero innovation, but it won’t deliver on net zero because it doesn’t all add up.  And this is where a systems approach to net zero starts to come in. It’s an incredibly complex problem with a lot of dependencies. Whenever you touch one part of the system, there will be consequences elsewhere and you need to follow that trail to make sure that it all adds up.  There is, I think, a growing awareness of that. Obviously, you can only tackle this one stage at a time. But certainly, from my perspective, it’s about understanding the totality of what you need to do even if you can’t do it all just yet.