Two centuries ago the UK led the world’s first Industrial Revolution. Powered by innovation and private investment, this transformation gave birth to many of our great cities and effectively created the modern world. Today we will mobilise the same forces to level up our country and enable our proud industrial heartlands to forge the future once again. By investing in clean technologies – wind, carbon capture, hydrogen and many others – Britain will lead the world into a new Green Industrial Revolution.
As the world begins to recover from the devastating impact of the coronavirus on lives and livelihoods, a broader transformation is taking shape. We will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs by investing in pioneering British industries while simultaneously protecting future generations from climate change and the remorseless destruction of habitats.
Britain is already leading the way. Over the last 30 years, we have shown that economic success and environmental responsibility go hand in hand. We expanded our GDP by 75 per cent while cutting emissions by 43 per cent. Our low-carbon industries already support over 460,000 jobs,1 from electric vehicle manufacturing in the Midlands and the North East to our thriving offshore wind industry centred on the Humber and the Tees. In 2019, we became the first major economy to adopt a legally binding obligation to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
This year, our Ten Point Plan will lay the foundations for a Green Industrial Revolution. We will start by supporting 90,000 jobs across the UK within this Parliament, and up to 250,000 by 2030. Engineers, fitters, construction workers and many others will be engaged in harnessing British science and technology to create and use clean energy and forge great new industries that export to new markets around the world. Our Lifetime Skills Guarantee will equip people with the training they need to take advantage of these opportunities.
The government has announced over £5 billion to support a green recovery. This plan mobilises £12 billion – and potentially more than three times as much from the private sector – to place green jobs at the heart of our economic revival.