Thank you for contacting me about the Prime Minister’s ten-point plan for a green recovery.
As the UK was the first G7 economy to legislate to achieve net zero emissions, I welcome the Prime Minister’s ten-point plan which will allow the UK to forge ahead in eradicating the UK’s contribution to climate change.
On energy, the UK will produce enough offshore wind to power every home, quadrupling how much we currently produce to 40GW by 2030, thereby supporting up to 60,000 jobs. The Government will work with industry and aim to generate 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 for industry, transport, power and homes. In addition, the Government aims to develop the first town heated entirely by hydrogen by the end of the decade. The UK will also become a world leader in carbon capture technology to store harmful emissions away from the atmosphere, with a target to remove 10MT of carbon dioxide by 2030, equivalent to all emission of the industrial Humber today, through £200 million investment. Finally, £525 million investment has been announced in nuclear as a clean energy source, and this will develop the next generation of small and advanced reactors which could support 10,000 jobs.
Other parts of the plan include a target to install 600,000 heat pumps every year by 2028, £1 billion funding to make our schools, hospitals and homes more energy efficient, planting 30,000 hectares of trees every year, promoting and investing in zero-emission transport, and £20 million to develop clean maritime technology. The plan also includes a pledge to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, while the sale of some hybrid cars and vans will continue until 2035.
At the centre of this blueprint are the UK’s industrial heartlands, including in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, the Midlands, Scotland and Wales, all of which will drive forward the green industrial revolution and build green jobs and industries of the future.
This plan will mobilise £12 billion of Government investment to create and support 250,000 highly-skilled green jobs across the UK. It is expected to spur over three times as much private sector investment by 2030. The plan builds on the UK’s existing strengths and will cement London as the global centre of green finance. The plan is particularly important in the run up to hosting the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November 2021, where the UK will call for further global action.
I am therefore encouraged that this plan comes at a vital moment as we work to achieve net zero and build back better and greener.
Thank you again for taking the time to contact me.
Sally-Ann Hart MP