The UK must become a global leader in climate action to create new green jobs and lift productivity post-Covid, the CBI has said. Launching the organisation’s Green Recovery Roadmap, CBI director-general Dame Carolyn Fairbairn called on the government to take urgent steps to reignite global efforts towards net zero carbon emissions.
Business and government must lead by example and put the country on the map as a top destination for low-carbon investment, she argued.
Fairbairn said: “The world faces two seemingly separate yet fundamental problems. Covid-19 – the biggest health crisis in living memory and climate change – the defining challenge of the modern era. But they are not separate. The response to one affects success on the other. And the defining question is, how does the UK use this moment to rebuild our economy and the greener and stronger world we want to return to.”
She called on the government to publish its much-anticipated Energy White Paper and National Infrastructure this autumn.
“Business has been promised and is waiting for the government’s climate blueprint – the Energy White Paper, National Infrastructure Strategy, and plans for the decarbonisation of transport, heat and buildings,” she said. These would enable firms “to strike ahead with their investment plans for a net-zero future with confidence. There’s no more powerful way to unlock private investment for the UK and set the agenda and pace of COP26 negotiations.”
She added: “As COP26 Chair and holder of the G7 presidency next year, the UK has a unique opportunity to prove itself a global climate leader post-Brexit.”
The Green Recovery Roadmap outlines six priorities:
- Accelerate the provision of electric vehicle charging points and introduce a net-zero mobility credit scheme, alongside government funding for a UK-based “gigafactory” manufacturing electric vehicle batteries
- Lift the cap on auctions for renewable power and introduce a financing model to encourage business investment in new nuclear capacity
- Become a world leader in carbon capture, utilisation and storagetechnology by introducing a privately-financed regulated asset base model and developing plans for an auction mechanism
- Provide £1bn of government funding for hydrogen testing programmes
- Create an Office for Sustainable Aviation Fuels
- Create jobs and save energy by retrofitting homes and buildings to be more energy efficient and switch to low-carbon heating.
https://www.cbi.org.uk/articles/the-government-decisions-needed-to-deliver-a-green-recovery/