The Climate Change Committee has forecast that net-zero investment will need to rise from £13.5bn this year to £50bn by 2030 and that around 85 per cent of decarbonisation between 2020 and 2035 will involve low-carbon technologies, either alone or with behavioural change.
While the UK is not yet a “green tech superpower”, the report states, it does have a comparative advantage over other advanced economies in several key technologies such as tidal power, offshore wind, and carbon capture and storage.
The report finds that areas outside London and the South East also have the greatest potential for a green expansion of the economy, with the areas with the highest share of green patents being the Tees Valley and Durham, and Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire.
These areas underperform, productivity-wise, compared to the rest of the UK, but are the most likely to gain from the expansion of clean technologies where the UK already performs well.
“A successful net...