The Prime Minister has today set out his ambitious ten point plan for a green industrial revolution which will create and support up to 250,000 British jobs.
Covering clean energy, transport, nature and innovative technologies, the Prime Minister’s blueprint will allow the UK to forge ahead with eradicating its contribution to climate change by 2050, 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.
The ten points are:
- Offshore wind: Producing enough offshore wind to power every home, quadrupling how much we produce to 40GW by 2030, supporting up to 60,000 jobs.
- Hydrogen: Working with industry 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.
- 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.
- Electric vehicles: Backing our world-leading car manufacturing bases including in the West Midlands, North East and North Wales to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, and transforming our national infrastructure to better support electric vehicles.
- 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 planes and ships.
- Homes and public buildings: Making our homes, schools and hospitals greener, warmer and more energy efficient, whilst creating 50,000 jobs by 2030, 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 away from the atmosphere, with a target to remove 10MT of carbon dioxide by 2030, equivalent to all emissions of the industrial Humber today.
- Nature: Protecting and restoring our natural environment, planting 30,000 hectares of trees every year, whilst creating and retaining thousands of jobs.
- Innovation and finance: Developing the cutting-edge technologies needed to reach these new energy ambitions and make the City of London the global centre of green finance.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:
“Although this year has taken a very different path to the one we expected, I haven’t lost sight of our ambitious plans to level up across the country. 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.”
To deliver on six points of the plan, the Prime Minister has announced new investment, including:
- Carbon capture: To revitalise the birthplaces of the first industrial revolution, the UK will be at the global forefront of carbon capture, usage and storage technology, benefiting regions with industries that are particularly difficult to decarbonise. 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. This increased the total invested to £1 billion, helping to support 50,000 jobs, potentially in areas such as the Humber, Teesside, Merseyside, Grangemouth and Port Talbot.
- Hydrogen: Up to £500 million, including for trialling homes using hydrogen for heating and cooking, starting with a Hydrogen Neighbourhood in 2023, moving to a Hydrogen Village by 2025, with an aim for a Hydrogen Town – equivalent to tens of thousands of homes – before the end of the decade. Of this funding, £240 million will go into new hydrogen production facilities.
- Nuclear: £525 million to help develop large and smaller-scale nuclear plants, and research and develop new advanced modular reactors.
- Electric vehicles: Following extensive consultation with car manufacturers and sellers, the Prime Minister has confirmed that the UK will end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, ten years earlier than planned. However we will allow the sale of hybrid cars and vans that can drive a significant distance with no carbon coming out of the tailpipe until 2035. The UK car industry already manufactures a significant proportion of electric vehicles in Europe, including one of the most popular models in the world. To support this acceleration, the Prime Minister has announced:
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- £1.3 billion to accelerate the rollout of chargepoints for electric vehicles in homes, streets and on motorways across England, so people can more easily and conveniently charge their cars.
- £582 million in grants for those buying zero or ultra-low emission vehicles to make them cheaper to buy and incentivise more people to make the transition.
- Nearly £500 million to be spent in the next four years for the development and mass-scale production of electric vehicle batteries, as part of our commitment to provide up to £1 billion, boosting international investment into our strong manufacturing bases including in the Midlands and North East, helping to protect & create thousands of new jobs, particularly in the Midlands, North East, and North Wales. A consultation on the phase out of new diesel HGVs will also be launched to put the UK in the vanguard of zero emission freight. No date has been set yet.
- Homes and public buildings: £1 billion next year into making new and existing homes and public buildings more efficient, extending the Green Homes Grant voucher scheme by a year and making public sector buildings greener and cutting bills for hospitals and schools, as part of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.
- Greener maritime: £20 million for a competition to develop clean maritime technology, such as feasibility studies on key sites, including Orkney and Teesside.
Other key parts of the plan will be driven forward by significant investment set out over the last year, including the £1 billion energy innovation fund to stay ahead of the latest technologies needed to reach new energy targets, £5 billion for alternative greener ways of travel including cycling, walking, and buses, and £5.2 billion to create for new flood and coastal defences in England by 2027.
The Prime Minister will host a virtual roundtable with green investors, in order to set out his ambitious plan and incentivise further private sector investment. Further plans to reduce emissions, whilst creating jobs to follow, are due to be announced over the next year in the run up to the international COP26 climate summit in Glasgow next year.
Ed Miliband, the shadow business secretary, whose own green recovery plans involve £30bn spent over 18 months, said the No 10 proposals were low on ambition and contained several “reheated pledges”:
“People are losing their jobs now. This isn’t fundamentally a green stimulus, it’s nowhere near the scale of what is required.
“This announcement doesn’t remotely meet the scale of the jobs emergency or the climate emergency. France and Germany are investing tens of billions of euros. This provides, at best, £4bn of new money over several years.
“What we needed was a really bold green economic stimulus, and what we got was a pale imitation of that. It’s deeply, deeply disappointing.”
Elsewhere industry reaction has been mostly positive:
Lord Deben, chairman, Climate Change Committee
“Today, the Prime Minister has laid out his vision for a net-zero UK. I am delighted to see the breadth of the Prime Minister’s commitment. This must now be turned into a detailed road map – so we all know what’s coming down the track in the years ahead.
Our homes, the way we travel, our industries, our land, and all of us individually have a role to play as we strive to lead the world in tackling climate change. The good news is that we can also reap the rewards – improved health, a stronger economy, a boost for UK jobs and the ability to tell our children and grandchildren that the UK acted in time.”
Frank Gordon, Head of Policy at REA
“This is a major day for the building of green industries in the UK.The electric vehicle charging infrastructure sector stands ready to roll-out enough charge points to meet demand so long as a supportive regulatory regime is in place.
Renewable transport fuels will play a critical and complementary role to this policy, and will be needed in greater volumes to ensure that we maximise emissions reductions from the millions of petrol and diesel cars and vans already on our roads, not just from new ones.
While we welcome the extension of the Green Homes Grant, we also believe it should be extended to cover more technologies such as energy storage and thermal batteries.
Additionally, it is great to see the role of Organics recognised in protecting and restoring the natural environment.”
Shaun Spiers, executive director, The Green Alliance
“It’s great to see the prime minister showing leadership ahead of the Glasgow climate summit next year by putting the industries of the future at the heart of his economic strategy. There’s still plenty of detail to examine, but these plans include bold and ambitious steps that will create jobs and sustain communities in towns and cities across the UK for generations, as well as protecting the planet. All eyes are now on the Treasury to deliver on these promises.”
Mike Childs, head of policy Friends of the Earth
“Despite a number of positive commitments, the Prime Minister’s 10-point plan falls far short of the ambitious policy overhaul needed to demonstrate real global leadership on the climate crisis. A much bolder approach is needed if the UK is to create the hundreds of thousands of new green jobs and other benefits that building a cleaner, safer future will bring.
While the phase-out of petrol and diesel cars and the pledge to build a much larger offshore wind industry are very welcome, the government must also encourage the development of onshore wind and commit to ending gas-fired heating in our homes. Without a much swifter switch to heat pumps the UK’s carbon commitments may not be met. We have the ability to build a zero-carbon future, but we need tough and urgent action from our politicians at all levels – and with the world spinning towards catastrophic climate change we don’t have time to waste.”
STA Chief Executive Chris Hewett
“It is disappointing that Number 10 has yet to grasp the opportunity presented by solar in the UK. Not only is it set to be the cheapest power source for years to come, it also provides good jobs and business opportunities up and down the country.”
Whilst the Prime Minister might have a blind spot for solar, decisions in the market are likely to outpace his thinking. Today the City of London signed a 15-year deal to fund a new solar park, residential solar installations have already bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, all major utilities are expanding their solar ambitions and costs continue to fall. Delivering net-zero is now as much about economics as it is policy.”
Morag Watson, Director of Policy at Scottish Renewables
“The Prime Minister’s recognition that renewable energy is at the heart of a green industrial revolution is to be welcomed. It remains vital, however, that the infrastructure and regulation changes required to underpin the required shift are prioritised, with proposals to alter to the way the electricity network is paid for currently meaning Scottish generation faces a complex future.
The UK needs a diverse range of power generation, both in terms of technology and geography, to provide the energy needed to realise these plans, so recognition of Scotland’s first-mover advantage in innovative technologies is also positive. More support to cement that advantage, particularly for tidal and wave energy, is also required.
The development of green hydrogen will complement increasing electrification of the energy system by creating a more flexible, resilient and integrated system, and plans for its growth are welcome.
Overall it is important that the UK’s energy future is powered by the renewable energy technologies which are already providing environmental and economic benefits across the country, and we look forward to working with both the UK and Scottish Governments to overcome the barriers to realising that vision.”
Melanie Onn, deputy chief executive, RenewableUK
“The Prime Minister has set out an ambitious plan for a new green industrial revolution, with low-cost renewable energy at its heart. The UK’s success in wind power puts us in a prime position to be a global leader across a whole suite of clean-tech industries, from EVs to renewable hydrogen, where we can create new UK supply chains to export our goods and expertise around the world.
We know that reaching net-zero emissions is going to mean transforming our energy system and large parts of our economy, and the Prime Minister’s Ten Point Plan is a vital step forward. Industry and Government are work closely together to secure the of billions in private investment in clean energy infrastructure, and the tens of thousands of high-quality green jobs across the UK to build it”.
LowCVP Managing Director Andy Eastlake
“This is a critical milestone for the UK’s automotive sector and for car drivers, and a vital part of the plan as we strive to achieve net zero by 2050. Since the invention of the internal combustion engine in the 1870s, the ICE has dominated the landscape and transformed the way we live. Now we must embrace the solutions that will allow us to continue to be mobile but without contributing to climate change.
We believe the targets are achievable, appropriate and many LowCVP members called for exactly this timing in order to maximise the impact on greenhouse gas emissions, but it will require partnership working at an unprecedented scale; between industries, and with government and the public to get us where we’ll need to be.”
