The transition credibility gap: why industrial reality is catching up with net zero storytelling 

A series of recent headlines point to an uncomfortable truth about the net zero transition.

We’re seeing waste facilities disrupted by materials they were never designed to handle, and infrastructure struggling to keep pace with political ambition. Meanwhile, industrial operators are quietly absorbing risks that rarely feature in the public story of “progress”.

These stories may look disconnected, but they share a common thread: a widening credibility gap between how the transition is being talked about, and how it is being lived.

This has moved beyond questions of messaging. It’s shaping how costs, delays and trade-offs are understood – particularly across transport, energy and adjacent systems.

From ambition to credibility

For much of the past decade, transition storytelling has been dominated by ambition: targets, pledges and roadmaps stretching reassuringly towards 2030 or 2050. That language served a purpose by helping to unlock investment and get the transition moving.

But as decarbonisation moves from strategy decks into physical systems – fleets, depots, grids, factories, plants and supply chains – ambition isn’t enough.

What matters now is credibility – with the operators who have to make systems work day to day, with workforces adapting to new skills and risks, and with communities living alongside new infrastructure.

When credibility goes, you feel it quickly – in delays, opposition, cost overruns and tougher regulatory scrutiny.

The problem with invisible systems

One reason the gap is widening is that much of the transition depends on infrastructure that the public rarely sees – and that’s rarely talked about honestly.

In transport, it is not the electric vehicle itself that creates the biggest constraint, but charging infrastructure, grid capacity, depot space, downtime and maintenance realities. Increasingly, it is also what happens after the vehicle’s first life: battery repair, remanufacturing, recycling and materials recovery.

EV batteries are a good example of where narrative and reality are drifting apart. Public messaging often treats them as a closed loop that’s already solved, when in practice the systems for reuse, second life, recycling and waste handling are still emerging, unevenly regulated and operationally complex. Those realities matter – not just environmentally, but commercially and reputationally – but they are largely absent from mainstream transition storytelling.

Similar dynamics play out in waste and energy systems, where operational constraints, contamination, resilience and reliability rarely feature in the headline narrative, even though they dominate day-to-day decision-making.

The risks of saying too little

Faced with this complexity, many organisations respond by simplifying the story – or saying less altogether. Trade-offs tend to be downplayed, interim compromises avoided, and risks discussed internally rather than externally.

In the short term, this can feel safer. But in the medium term, it often isn’t.

When organisations say very little, others fill in the gaps for them – often unhelpfully. Optimistic claims end up contradicting lived experience, and confidence is lost.

Most audiences are more sophisticated than they are given credit for. They understand that industrial transitions are difficult. What they struggle with is being told one story and experiencing another.

Why this matters now

Over time, this credibility gap starts to carry real consequences – slowing projects, increasing planning risk and undermining confidence among investors, customers and workforces.

In automotive and transport, where decarbonisation runs straight into public infrastructure, supply chains and long asset lifecycles, credibility matters more than ever. The same applies in waste and resource management, where tolerance for disruption is low and understanding of system complexity is often patchy.

In that context, the organisations that tend to fare better are not those with the most polished sustainability language, but those that can explain – plainly and consistently – how their systems actually work, where the constraints sit, and where the real opportunities for progress are.

Simple net zero narratives are starting to lose their usefulness. What comes next will be more exposed and less comfortable, but better suited to maintaining confidence as systems change.

And across transport, energy, manufacturing and waste, credibility may prove to be the most important infrastructure of all.

By Fiona Carmichael, Head of Trade and Industry at Citypress

To discuss your communications strategy for 2026, get in touch with our specialist sector team →