Boris Johnson has unveiled plans for a green industrial revolution which will support up to 250,000 highly-skilled green jobs in the UK.
The Prime Minister’s ten-point plan paves the way to the UK’s net zero future and will generate £12 billion of government investment. In addition to supporting green jobs, it will spur more than three times as much private sector investment over the next decade.
The blueprint will cover clean energy, transport, nature and innovative technologies, to help eliminate its contribution to climate change by 2050.
The Prime Minister’s ten points are:
1.Offshore wind: Producing enough offshore wind to power every home, quadrupling the amount produced by 2030, and supporting up to 60,000 jobs.
2.Hydrogen: Aiming to generate 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 for industry, transport, power and homes, and aiming to develop the first town heated entirely by hydrogen by the end of the decade.
3.Nuclear: Advancing nuclear as a clean energy source, across large scale nuclear and developing the next generation of small and advanced reactors, which could support 10,000 jobs.
4.Electric vehicles (EV): Backing the UK’s car manufacturing to accelerate the transition to EVs, and transforming the national infrastructure to better support electric vehicles.
5.Public transport, cycling and walking: Making cycling and walking more attractive ways to travel and investing in zero-emission public transport of the future.
6.Jet Zero and greener maritime: Supporting difficult-to-decarbonise industries to become greener through research projects for zero-emission planes and ships.
7.Homes and public buildings: Making homes, schools and hospitals greener, warmer and more energy efficient, while creating 50,000 jobs by 2030, and aiming to install 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028.
8.Carbon capture: Becoming a world-leader in technology to capture and store harmful emissions away from the atmosphere, with a target to remove 10MT of carbon dioxide by 2030.
9.Nature: Protecting and restoring the natural environment, planting 30,000 hectares of trees every year and creating/retaining thousands of jobs.
10.Innovation and finance: Developing pioneering technologies and make the City of London the global centre of green finance.
Boris Johnson said: “My Ten Point Plan will create, support and protect hundreds of thousands of green jobs, whilst making strides towards net zero by 2050.
“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.”
New investment required to deliver on six points of the plan include an extra £200 million to create two new carbon capture clusters by the mid-2020s, and up to £500 million for hydrogen projects (trialling houses using hydrogen and new hydrogen production facilities).
The Prime Minister has also confirmed the UK will end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, a decade earlier than planned and will release £582 million in grants for those buying zero or ultra-low emission vehicles. He also announced £1.3 billion to accelerate the rollout of EV chargepoints.
Nearly £500 million will be invested over the next four years for the development and production of EV batteries. The focus on the electric vehicle industry will help protect and create thousands of new jobs, particularly in the Midlands, North East and North Wales.
The PM will also spend £1 billion on making existing homes and public buildings more efficient, extending the Green Homes Grant voucher by a year and making public sector buildings greener as part of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.
He will also plough £20 million into developing clean maritime technology, such as feasibility studies on key sites, including Orkney and Teesside.
There will be further plans to reduce emissions and create jobs over the next year in the run up to next year’s international COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
