Why Britain is at heart of a green revolution - Rashmi Dube

I understand how it could be missed amongst the angst of 2020, but last week saw two big announcements by the Prime Minster. They put the UK firmly front and centre of the global stage and both will create jobs and business opportunities. It must be Christmas!

The first is in respect of the military. The Government announced a £4bn a year budget over four years to cover such areas as cyber security and the creation of a national cyber force.

This is in addition to having a space command by 2022. The belief is that this will also create 10,000 jobs in the UK. A definite signal to the US president-elect that we mean business and offer strong leadership.

But it’s the second announcement that I believe will have the most impact in the North. This is in respect of the Government’s Green Plan to hit the UK target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Here the UK is showing that we can stand shoulder to shoulder with other world leaders. Although I have to say the UK already positioned itself as a global general when we become the first major economy to pass net zero emissions law on June 27, 2019. All we are doing is following through on that plan, but speeding things up and bringing aspects of it forward by 20 years.

What the Prime Minister set was an ambitious ten-point plan for a green industrial revolution which will create and (according to the gov.uk website) support up to 250,000 British jobs.

The plan will include clean energy, public transport, homes and public buildings, 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.

The timing of this announcement is crucial given that the UK will be hosting the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow on November 1-12, 2021.

It gives us a year to show substance to the announcement. The plan is also part of the Government’s “mission” to level up across the country and “will mobilise £12bn 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.” (www.gov.uk)

The Government has stated that it has centred its blueprint around the UK’s industrial heartlands, including in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, West Midlands, Scotland and Wales, “which will drive forward the green industrial revolution and build green jobs and industries of the future”.

The plan sees a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK by 2030, a decade earlier than initially envisaged, and a target to replace by 2028, 600,000 gas boilers by installing low energy heat pumps. The Government is investing £4bn and the hope of creating green jobs in the process. Tackling climate change and putting green energy to the forefront can be a key driver for growth, but we have to do it right.

This will include protecting existing jobs or finding replacement jobs where positions become redundant, together with other support systems that need to be put in place to ensure the economic transition is considered on all fronts.

The Government is correct in its approach and this is an enormous opportunity for unlimited economic growth. It probably also has landed at an opportune moment.

Although in the throes of a pandemic, this is the moment when we need to think very carefully about where we channel our limited financial resources in order to make us world leaders and also create new jobs, new industries and help business grow the economy.

If done correctly, with thought being provided to the economic transition, we could see a greener future.

We have moved in the right direction by having a true commitment at home, showing the world the UK is once again leading the charge and has a true understanding that the free market alone is not enough to move us forward.

By Rashmi Dube - Partner at Gunnercooke