The Times newspaper has admitted that a recent front-page story misled readers about a new report on net zero by the National Energy System Operator (NESO). The headline in the print edition of the newspaper was ‘Net zero plan to cost households £500 a year’, while the online headline was ‘Scrapping net zero deadline could save households £500 a year’. In the fourth, ‘Falling Behind’, scenario, further decarbonisation takes place but without reaching the net zero goal. If carbon costs were included, the net zero scenario would be cheaper, it said.”When challenged by me about its inaccurate and misleading front-page article, The Times agreed only to address its headlines, changing the online version to “Scrapping net zero deadline could save Britain £14bn a year”. It provided a misleading impression of the basis for the statutory target of reaching net zero annual emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.

Source: The Times January 07, 2026 19:42 UTC