UK capable of creating 700,000 new green jobs by 2030
11th June 2020 | Commercial Energy
With the correct support from central government and local authorities, the UK could create almost 700,000 new green jobs within a decade, and a further 488,000 through to 2050, new research has concluded. Produced by the Local Government Association (LGA), the report comes amid a backdrop of warnings that the UK unemployment rate could soar to 10% if there is a second wave of coronavirus in the latter half of 2020. The unemployment rate has been stagnating around 3.9% since February, but, with the furlough scheme due to wind down, the Treasury has warned that further redundancies are still to come.
According to the report, much of this pain could be avoided if the Government works with councils and with skills providers to create economic recovery options centred around renewable energy, clean technologies and energy efficiencies. It recommends that Ministers create a jobs guarantee programme and back-to-work supports for those made redundant in the public sector: that local authorities translate the UK’s overarching net-zero target into a context-specific roadmap: and that far greater collaborative action to spur the skills pipeline is implemented.
Green jobs
If these and other measure are undertaken holistically and at a pace, the report concludes, 698,000 new green jobs can be created within a decade – around half of which will be in the renewable energy generation sector. Other sectors with significant representation in this cohort are energy efficiency products (21%), low-emission vehicle manufacturing (14%), alternative fuel production (10%) and low-carbon services such as legal, IT and financial (9%).
Regarding the geographical distribution of these new roles, the LGA has identified Yorkshire and the Humber and the North West as hotspots, whereby more than 28% of the new roles could be located. Plans are underway for a net-zero industrial cluster in Humber, backed by Drax and Equinor, with the region also playing host to a hydrogen cluster. However, a significant number of roles would be created in each and every region, the report concludes.
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https://www.edie.net/news/11/UK–capable-of-creating-700-000-new-green-jobs-by-2030-/