With the UK due to host the COP 26 Climate Summit in November 2021, the UK Government is eager to demonstrate its credentials as a global ‘green’ leader.

In an effort to seize the coronavirus pandemic as an opportunity to ‘level up’ prosperity across the UK, the Prime Minister announced on 18th November an ambitious 10-point plan billed as the Green Industrial Revolution Plan.

More broadly, this plan should be viewed in the context of the Government’s blueprint for delivering on the UK’s domestic legal commitment to be a net zero economy by 2050. At the centre of this blueprint are the UK’s industrial heartlands, including the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, West Midlands, Scotland and Wales.

The £12bn plan will support up to 250,000 green jobs, with the Government aiming to secure three times as much investment from the private sector by 2030.

Green groups have since been quick to respond with the majority welcoming the plan as a good starting point, providing much-needed certainty for sectors that the net-zero transition is well underway. Conversely however, some criticism has arisen in regard to the need for the ambitious legislative framework to be turned into an actionable roadmap for sectors to enact tangible environmental change.

The Prime Minister’s ten points are: