Mandelson targets more than one million low carbon jobs by 2015

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The UK’s low carbon industries could deliver “more than a million jobs… by the middle of the next decade”, according to business secretary Peter Mandelson who today trailed a package of new measures designed to support the emerging sector.

Speaking at the prime minister’s jobs summit in London earlier today, Lord Mandelson said that low carbon and environmental goods and services offered a prime example of how the government plans to create new jobs to replace those lost during the recession.

“The global market for low carbon and environmental goods and services is currently worth about £3trn, and it is projected to grow strongly over the next decade as both the developed and the emerging world makes the shift to low carbon or post-carbon,” he predicted.

Mandelson said that with more than 800,000 people in the UK already employed in low carbon industries once the supply chain is taken into account the UK’s environmental goods and services sector is “the sixth biggest globally and is projected to grow substantially over the next decade”.

“If the UK takes advantage of the opportunities available and realises this growth, we could see more than a million jobs in this sector by the middle of the next decade,” he added.

But he also warned that this “job revolution” would only be realised with substantial support from government. “This is going to be a fearsomely competitive sector,” he argued, adding that the business environment would need to be “fine tuned” by the government to enable green collar job creation.

Mandelson’s speech comes just weeks ahead of the publication of the government’s low carbon industrial strategy, which he said would feature a range of measures designed to stimulate the emerging low carbon sector.

He said the new strategy would include “things like government procurement strategies to help companies willing to take the leap to develop the expertise that will make them global leaders” as well as policies designed to ensure “we are developing the right skills base and investing strategically in the right research commercialisation and process innovation”.