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The writer is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Slowly but surely, humanity is taking the lead in the fight against the virus. We haven’t won yet. Difficult weeks and months remain. But with better drugs, tests, and a variety of vaccines, we know in our hearts that next year we will make it through.
We will use science to end the virus, and we must use the same extraordinary powers of invention to repair the economic damage of Covid-19 and rebuild better.
Now is the time to plan for an ecological recovery with highly skilled jobs that give people the satisfaction of knowing that they are helping to make the country cleaner, greener and more beautiful.
Imagine Britain when a green industrial revolution helped level the country. You cook breakfast using hydrogen energy before getting into your electric car, having charged it overnight with batteries made in the Midlands. Around you the air is cleaner; trucks, trains, ships, and planes run on hydrogen or synthetic fuel.
British cities and regions – Teesside, Port Talbot, Merseyside and Mansfield – are now synonymous with green technology and jobs. This is where Britain’s ability to produce hydrogen and capture carbon pioneered the decarbonization of transport, industry and energy.
My 10-point plan to achieve this will mobilize £ 12 billion of government investment, and potentially three times more from the private sector, to create and support up to 250,000 green jobs.
There will be electric vehicle technicians in the Midlands, construction and installation workers in the North East and Wales, advanced fuels specialists in the North West, agroforestry professionals in Scotland and network system installers everywhere. And we’ll help people train for these new green jobs through our Lifetime Skills Guarantee.
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This 10-point plan will make the UK the world’s number one hub for green finance and technology, laying the foundation for decades of economic growth.
One: we will make the UK the Saudi Arabia of wind power with enough offshore capacity to power every home by 2030.
Two: we will convert water into energy with an investment of up to £ 500 million in hydrogen.
Three: we will carry forward our plans for new nuclear power, from large-scale modular reactors to small and advanced ones.
Four: we will invest more than £ 2.8 billion in electric vehicles, connecting the land with charging points and creating long-lasting batteries in UK gigafactories. This will allow us to end the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars and vans in 2030. However, we will allow the sale of hybrid cars and vans that can travel a significant distance without carbon coming out of the tailpipe until 2035.
Five: We will have cleaner public transportation, including thousands of green buses and hundreds of miles of new bike lanes.
Six: We will strive to repeat the feat of Jack Alcock and Teddie Brown, who achieved the first non-stop transatlantic flight a century ago with a zero-emission aircraft. And we will do the same with the ships.
Seven: We will invest £ 1 billion next year to make homes, schools and hospitals greener and lower energy bills.
Eight: We will establish a new world leading industry in carbon capture and storage, backed by £ 1 billion of government investment for clusters in North, Wales and Scotland.
Nine: We will harness nature’s ability to absorb carbon by planting 30,000 hectares of trees per year by 2025 and rebuilding 30,000 soccer fields.
And ten: our £ 1bn energy innovation fund will help commercialize new low-carbon technologies, such as the world’s first liquid air battery being developed at Trafford, and we will make the City of London the global hub for finance. greens through our sovereign bond, carbon offset markets and disclosure requirements.
This plan can be a global template for generating net zero emissions so that jobs are created and our lifestyles are preserved.
On Wednesday I will meet with UK companies to discuss their contribution. We plan to provide clear schedules for the clean energy that we will source, details of the regulations that we will change, and the carbon prices that we will apply to emissions.
I will establish a “net zero working group” committed to reaching net zero by 2050, and during next year’s COP26 summit we will urge countries and companies around the world to join us in achieving net zero globally.
Green and growth can go hand in hand. So let’s face the most enduring threat to our planet with one of the most innovative and ambitious job creation programs we’ve ever seen.
