Britain's 'Green Industrial Revolution'
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Boris Johnson’s Ten Point Plan
On the 18th of November PM Boris Johnson announced his Ten Point Plan which covers clean energy, transport, nature and innovative technologies in an attempt to eradicate the UK’s contribution to climate change, preparing the UK’s hosting of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow next year.
These points are listed below:
Offshore wind: Producing enough offshore wind to power every home, quadrupling how much we produce to 40GW by 2030, supporting up to 60,000 jobs.
Hydrogen: Working with industry aiming to generate 5GW of low carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 for industry, transport, power and homes, and aiming to develop the first town heated entirely by hydrogen by the end of the decade.
Nuclear: Advancing nuclear as a clean energy source, across large scale nuclear and developing the next generation of small and advanced reactors, which could support 10,000 jobs.
Electric vehicles: Backing our world-leading car manufacturing bases including in the West Midlands, North East and North Wales to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, and transforming our national infrastructure to better support electric vehicles.
Public transport, cycling and walking: Making cycling and walking more attractive ways to travel and investing in zero-emission public transport of the future.
Jet Zero and greener maritime: Supporting difficult-to-decarbonise industries to become greener through research projects for zero-emission planes and ships.
Homes and public buildings: Making our homes, schools and hospitals greener, warmer and more energy-efficient, whilst creating 50,000 jobs by 2030, and a target to install 600,000 heat pumps every year by 2028.
Carbon capture: Becoming a world-leader in technology to capture and store harmful emissions away from the atmosphere, with a target to remove 10MT of carbon dioxide by 2030, equivalent to all emissions of the industrial Humber today.
Nature: Protecting and restoring our natural environment, planting 30,000 hectares of trees every year, whilst creating and retaining thousands of jobs.
Innovation and finance: Developing the cutting-edge technologies needed to reach these new energy ambitions and make the City of London the global centre of green finance.
To summarise, the Ten Point Plan promises to ‘mobilise £12 billion of government investment...to create and support up to 250,000 green jobs.’
Analysis of the Ten Point Plan
First and foremost, it is forecasted that the Ten Point Plan will only lower carbon emission by 10%, far from the 31% decrease needed for the UK to meet its carbon budgets and reach net-zero emissions by 2030. This has led to the Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change MP Ed Miliband, believing that the plan was low on ambition and contained several ‘reheated pledges’. Not only does the Ten Point Plan seemingly lack the ambition to tackle climate change, but it could be argued that meticulous and detailed planning and budgeting were also absent. Caroline Lucas, the Green party MP, condemned the plan as vague and underpowered calling it ‘a shopping list, not a plan to address the climate emergency’.
Such opinions are formed due to certain flaws in Johnson’s plan illustrated by the example of Point 4: ‘Electric Vehicles’. Despite investment increasing the numbers of public chargers and nearly ¾ of British households can charge their electric cars at home in their garage, it is the price of electric cars compared to petrol or diesel-powered cars which makes the latter more appealing. Presently, the government provides a £3000 contribution for the purchase of an electric car which on average costs over £20,000. This effort is seen to be considerably lower than Norway, the world leader in electric cars, where they have successfully tightened the price gap by levying taxes and fees on fossil-fuelled cars. Additionally, Chancellor Sunak’s Spending Review which did not mention funding for the ‘Green Industrial Revolution’ only serves to dampen hopes for investment in the Ten Point Plan. He has said he will prioritise jobs, businesses and public services, spending £280bn to stabilise the country through COVID-19 of which £27bn will be spent on a roads programme, undermining Point 4 and 5 of the Ten Point Plan.
Perhaps, the intention of the Ten Point Plan was never solely focused on climate change. PM Boris Johnson has advocated his plan with the argument that ‘British towns and regions — Teesside, Port Talbot, Merseyside and Mansfield — are now synonymous with green technology and growth’. He believed that ‘green and growth can go hand-in-hand.’, dispelling James Frayne, a public affairs consultant belief that ‘working-class voters will slowly but surely peel off to Labour’ when the government focusses on ‘softer issues’.
It is important that the Ten Point Plan acknowledges climate change and puts forward resolutions to tackle climate change. Equally, PM Boris Johnson should not let his political motive be the main driver for the Ten Point Plan.
by Ke Thie Kiew