From education to employment

£80 million boost to cut emissions – but where is the funding to develop the skills?

Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng

Nearly £80 million investment from government to reduce carbon emissions from industry and homes.

These are great innovative projects, but where is the funding to re-skill or upskill people into these long term sustainable jobs and careers?

Particularly with so many people currently on furlough, who will need to re-skills and re-train. 

  • Nearly £80 million investment from government to reduce carbon emissions from industry and homes
  • first phase to help heavy industry go green, helping to cut energy costs, protect jobs, and cut carbon emissions
  • new green homes programme will retrofit homes with latest green tech, helping people save money on their energy bills

Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng has announced nearly £80 million of government investment to help cut carbon emissions from homes and energy intensive businesses.

The funding will be invested in a wide range of programmes, including pioneering heat network trials and an innovative new programme to bring down the cost of retrofitting residential properties with the latest energy efficiency technologies.

Funds announced today include:

  • £30 million towards the first phase of the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF), which supports energy intensive manufacturers, like car factories and steel plants, to cut their carbon footprint
  • £25 million for heat networks, which reduce carbon and cut heating bills for customers, including one which will harness geothermal water sitting in disused mines to heat 1,250 homes
  • £24 million for innovative projects to help develop energy efficient homes by installing green tech and insulation in houses

Energy Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said:

“We want to invest now to ensure we continue to propel the UK towards a stronger, greener future.

“This new £80 million investment will help to reduce emissions across our economy, which will save people money on energy bills and protect jobs in heavy industry.”

Phase 1 of the Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (IETF), for which guidance is published today, is worth an initial £30 million in support of the manufacturing sector. The fund allows companies with high energy use to apply for grants to install technology that reduces their energy bills and cuts carbon emissions.

Worth an eventual £289 million in England, Wales and Northern Ireland up until 2024, the IETF also seeks to help bring down the costs of technologies that reduce energy consumption and emissions in heavy industrial processes.

£25 million will go towards heat networks, including one in Gateshead, which will harness hot geothermal water sitting in disused mines to heat 1,250 homes. With thousands of redundant mine shafts criss-crossing the country, experts say that if the mine shaft technology proves successful and economically viable, it could be scaled up to power around 6 million homes around Britain.

The final £24 million green homes investment will comprise of:

  • £7.7 million to install green technology and insulation in over 300 council houses, to bring down the cost of retrofitting homes – with pilot projects in Cornwall, Nottingham, and Sutton
  • £14.6 million to pilot the roll-out of innovative heat pumps to 750 homes in the South East of Scotland, the South East of England and Newcastle
  • £1.8 million to support the development of innovative green home finance products by lenders.

The announcements today (29 Jun) form part of the wider efforts to ensure the UK meets its legally binding target to reach net zero emissions by 2050.


Reducing UK emissions: Committee on Climate Change’s 2020 Progress Report to Parliament 

This is the Committee’s 2020 report to Parliament, assessing progress in reducing UK emissions over the past year.

This year, the report includes new advice to the UK Government on securing a green and resilient recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.

It recommends that Ministers seize the opportunity to turn the COVID-19 crisis into a defining moment in the fight against climate change.

Although a limited number of steps have been taken over the past year to support the transition to a net-zero economy and improve the UK’s resilience to the impacts of climate change, much remains to be done.

For the first time, the Committee sets out its recommendations government department by government department.

Key findings

The Committee’s new analysis expands on its May 2020 advice to the UK Prime Minister in which it set out the principles for building a resilient recovery.

In its new report, the Committee has assessed a wide set of measures and gathered the latest evidence on the role of climate policies in the economic recovery.

Its report highlights five clear investment priorities in the months ahead:

  1. Low-carbon retrofits and buildings that are fit for the future
  2. Tree planting, peatland restoration, and green infrastructure
  3. Energy networks must be strengthened
  4. Infrastructure to make it easy for people to walk, cycle, and work remotely
  5. Moving towards a circular economy.

There are also opportunities to support the transition and the recovery by investing in the UK’s workforce, and in lower-carbon behaviours and innovation:

  1. Reskilling and retraining programmes
  2. Leading a move towards positive behaviours
  3. Targeted science and innovation funding

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