UK BLUEPRINT TO SPEND £1BN ON EMISSION CUTS.
The UK Government has revealed its ambitious blueprint to deliver the world’s first Low Carbon industrial sector and has pledged more than £1 billion to reduce emissions from all sectors of the economy.
The new Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, which builds on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution published last year, sets out the government’s plans for building a competitive and greener future for the manufacturing and industrial sectors of the UK. This includes the plans to encourage and support existing industries to implement decarbonisation strategies as well as encourage new, Low Carbon industries to open in the UK, supporting the creation of thousands of new jobs.
The transition to greener energy as opposed to the use of fossil fuels will be implemented across a multitude of industrial clusters across the UK. In addition, the government intends to introduce new rules on measuring the energy and carbon performance of large commercial and industrial buildings, including office blocks and factories, in England and Wales.
The strategy includes other key commitments like, carbon pricing - getting industries to take responsibility and account for their emissions, drafting new policies that will ensure the switching from fossil fuels, in industry, to Low Carbon alternatives such as hydrogen, electricity or biomass. As well as mitigating carbon leakage to meet their ambitious climate goals.
Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “We were the first major economy to put into law our target to end our contribution to climate change and today we’re taking steps to be the first major economy to have its own Low Carbon industrial sector.
“While reaching our climate targets will require extensive change across our economy, we must do so in a way that protects jobs, creates new industries and attracts inward investment – without pushing emissions and business abroad.
“Ahead of COP26, the UK is showing the world how we can cut emissions, create jobs and unleash private investment and economic growth. Today’s strategy builds on this winning formula as we transition Low Carbon and renewable energy sources, while supporting the competitiveness of Britain’s industrial base. Backed by more than £1 billion investment, today’s plans will make a considerable dent in the amount of carbon emissions emitting from our economy and put us on the path to eliminate our contribution to climate change by 2050.”
To get this ambitious project moving forward, around £171 million from the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge has been allocated to nine Zero-carbon hub projects in Scotland, South Wales and North West, Humber and Teesside in England, to rollout decarbonisation of each hub using advanced technology such as carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) and hydrogen.
Being the first sectors to do so. With this investment into the future of decarbonisation the UK will be at the forefront of the race to net-zero.