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The Government today predicted that the market for environmental goods and services would expand to create an extra 400,000 jobs over the next decade.
Prime minister Gordon Brown, business secretary Peter Mandelson and energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband launched a consultation on its Low Carbon Industrial Strategy in London this morning.
Mandelson marked out the growing importance of the Low Carbon sector, which currently employs 880,000 people in the UK.
“Low carbon is not a sector of our economy, it is, or will be, our whole economy, and a global market,” said Mandelson.
“Today we are asking what more needs to be done to ensure these changes benefit the UK economy, and what needs to be done to equip British companies to compete for low carbon business in Britain and overseas. A low carbon industrial strategy must seize the opportunities that will come with change. That requires a new industrial activism for a new green industrial revolution.”
The Government’s Low Carbon Industrial Strategy will aim for step change in four areas:
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Energy efficiency to save businesses, consumers and the public services money
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Putting in place the energy infrastructure for the UK’s low carbon future – in renewables, nuclear, Carbon Capture and Storage and a ‘smart’ grid
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Making the UK a global leader in the development and production of low carbon vehicles
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Ensuring our skills, infrastructure, procurement, research and development, demonstration and deployment policies make the UK the best place to locate and develop a low carbon business and make sure international business recognises that.
“The shift to low carbon in the UK, and around the world is now largely inevitable,” said Miliband.
“What is not inevitable is that Britain benefits industrially from the transition. We want to mobilise every bit of expertise and ingenuity that Britain has to offer.”
The British Wind Energy Association agreed with the government’s prediction of job growth in the green sector,claiming that the wind industry was one of the highest-growth industries in Europe, growing at an average rate of 12% over the last 5 years.
However, the Conservatives criticised the Government for talking about climate change while failing to take action.
“Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband went to Washington, but they have learned nothing from President Obama: he is taking action this day, they are launching a consultation on a strategy,” said shadow energy and climate change secretary Greg Clark.
“We now have a real problem. At a time when immediate action is essential, our Government is only thinking aloud about what to do. Consultation has become a substitute for taking decisions.”
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