On 18 November UK prime minister Boris Johnson set out the government’s ambitious ten point plan for a green industrial revolution.
Covering clean energy, transport, nature and innovative technologies, the blueprint is intended to allow the UK to press ahead with eradicating its contribution to climate change by 2050, which is particularly crucial in the run up to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow next year.
The plan will mobilise £12 billion of government investment to create and support up to 250 000 highly-skilled ‘green’ jobs in the UK, and spur over three times as much private sector investment by 2030. At the centre of his blueprint are the UK’s industrial heartlands.
These ten points, which are aimed at building on the UK’s strengths, are:
- Offshore wind: quadrupling production to 40 GW by 2030
- Hydrogen: aim to generate 5 GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 for industry, transport, power and homes
- Nuclear: advancing nuclear as a clean energy source, and developing the next generation of small and advanced reactors
- Electric vehicles: backing manufacturing bases to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, and transforming the national infrastructure to support them
- Public transport, cycling and walking: making cycling and walking more attractive ways to travel and investing in zero-emission public transport of the future
- Jet Zero and greener maritime: supporting difficult-to-decarbonise industries to become greener through research projects for zero-emission aeroplanes and ships
- Homes and public buildings: Making homes, schools and hospitals greener, warmer and more energy efficient, and a target to install 600 000 heat pumps every year by 2028
- Carbon capture: Becoming a world-leader in technology to capture and store harmful emissions, with a target to remove 10 Mt of carbon dioxide by 2030
- Nature: protecting and restoring the natural environment, planting 30 000 hectares of trees every year
- Innovation and finance: developing the cutting-edge technologies needed to reach these new energy ambitions and make London the global centre of green finance.
Mr Johnson commented: “Our green industrial revolution will be powered by the wind turbines of Scotland and the North East, propelled by the electric vehicles made in the Midlands and advanced by the latest technologies developed in Wales, so we can look ahead to a more prosperous, greener future.”
To deliver on six points of the plan, the prime minister announced new investment, including an extra £200 million of new funding to create two carbon capture clusters by the mid-2020s, with another two set to be created by 2030; up to £500 million, to trial homes using hydrogen on an increasing scale, including £240 million for new hydrogen production facilities; £525 million to help develop large and smaller-scale nuclear plants, and research and develop new advanced modular reactors; and ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, ten years earlier than previously planned.
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