The call was made by EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation ahead of the publication of the Renewables consultation/strategy and on the back of a report ‘Delivering the Low Carbon Economy – Business Opportunities for UK Manufacturers’ produced by EEF in conjunction with Deloitte’s UK Manufacturing Industry Group.
Tony Sarginson, EEF Regional Manager, said:
“Moving to a low-carbon economy will create significant business opportunities for the North East, but we will need to move quickly and decisively. Businesses around the world are alive to the massive opportunities and a number of governments are making their exploitation a national priority.”
Despite these opportunities, industry faces a number of barriers before it can realise the potential of the low-carbon economy. Overcoming these barriers should be a key consideration for government’s climate change strategy.
Tony Sarginson warned:
“We need a strategy that provides leadership, overcomes the barriers to investment and helps develop the capabilities needed to deliver a low-carbon economy. The UK must be an attractive location for low-carbon businesses. The existing emphasis on negative incentives, such as carbon pricing and energy taxation, must be balanced with positive incentives for companies. In particular, support for R&D should be increased, better targeted and made more accessible.”
Jane Lodge, UK Manufacturing Industry Leader at Deloitte, said:
“A range of opportunities exist for manufacturers to develop new climate friendly technologies and many UK businesses are already world class in their sectors. However, there is still much work to be done both by manufacturers themselves and also by government to create the right environment to allow these opportunities to be maximised.”
The report shows that the UK has the potential to lead the way in the low-carbon revolution. A wealth of transferable industrial capabilities, a generous endowment of relevant natural resources and market-leading technologies leave the UK extremely well-placed to profit from the expansion in three key areas of opportunity:
- Clean Coal. The UK’s strengths in the power, process and offshore engineering industries has provided market leaders in each of the major capture technologies. Estimates suggest carbon capture and storage could be worth $40 billion per annum by 2030.
- Offshore wind. The UK possesses the best wind energy resources, both onshore and offshore in Europe and the potential size of the offshore market and specialist marine engineering capabilities should make the UK an attractive investment location. The Carbon Trust has estimated this could be worth £2 billion a year by 2020.
- Marine renewables. The UK possesses the largest marine energy resource in Europe, around twice as much as any other country. The UK has more businesses engaged in developing marine energy devices than any other country. Estimates suggest this could be worth £300m-900m by 2020 and £600m - £4.2 billion by 2050.
Notes for editors
‘Delivering the Low Carbon Economy – Business Opportunities for UK Manufacturers is available from www.eef.org.uk
For more information contact Jenny Russell 0191 4165656 jenniferrussell@eefnorthern.org.uk
EEF has more than 500 member companies in the North East of England and provides the most cost effective legal, employment law, employee relations and HS&E advice and training in the UK.
EEF employs teams of HR and employment specialists and has access to more than 60 lawyers and barristers to help its members understand the issues associated with the ever increasing introduction of legislation and regulation.
Membership of EEF gives immediate unlimited access to the team of specialists - including the largest specialist employment law team in the UK, which provides professional no-nonsense advice and guidance either by telephone or in person.
In addition, EEF represents the interests of its members at UK Government, European and international level, and can provide advice and support on issues and legislation that can affect almost every aspect of business.
Visit www.eef.org.uk/northern for further information
About Deloitte
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