The factory gates are locked, the electricity bill has gone up, and somewhere a minister is announcing an industrial renaissance. The steel still has to come from somewhere. So do the solar panels, the batteries and the machinery that will keep the lights on. The question is where they are made, who pays for them, and what happens to the towns that once made such things themselves.

In Net Zero, Empty Factories, John Shenton follows the public bill for the energy transition. He starts with the household deciding how long to leave the heating on and the manufacturer deciding whether to renew its electricity contract or move production abroad. From there he follows the money through government subsidies, power markets, carbon credits and the trade in imported goods. A saving entered in one ledger can turn up as a cost in another, often with a different name and a different person obliged to pay it.

China and India complicate the picture. Both rely heavily on coal, even as they expand renewable power and build industries that supply the transition. Britain can close a furnace and record a fall in domestic emissions. If it then imports steel made with coal, the atmosphere receives no copy of the minister’s statement. Shenton asks when the transfer of production cancels out an apparent environmental gain, and what it means for a country to rely on overseas suppliers for goods it once had the capacity to make.

The book compares the choices made in Britain, Europe, Canada and the United States. It examines what happens when wind and solar output fall, what firms need before they commit to a new plant, and how an energy policy can look affordable in a government forecast while leaving households and employers exposed to higher bills. It also asks who stands to gain. Equipment suppliers can win new markets, investors can secure long contracts, and traders can earn fees each time a carbon credit changes hands. A worker whose plant shuts has rather fewer ways to make the figures come right.

Written with dry humour and an eye for the distance between official language and ordinary life, this is a book about the choices hidden inside the promise of net zero. It asks how much a policy cuts global emissions, what it costs to keep industry at home, and who has a say before the bill falls due. The people who pay it deserve to see the workings, especially when they are also being asked to applaud the result.

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