The Government will allocate over £1bn to reduce emissions from industry and public buildings like schools, hospitals and council buildings and aims to slash emissions by two-thirds in just 15 years.

Building on the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution published last year, the new Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy sets out the Government’s vision for building a competitive, greener future for the manufacturing and construction sector.

The new strategy will be underpinned by supporting existing industry to decarbonise and encouraging the growth of new, low carbon industries in the UK to protect and create skilled jobs and businesses in the UK, as well as giving businesses long-term certainty to invest in home-grown decarbonisation technology, such as that which can capture and store carbon emissions from industrial plants - rather than outsourcing industrial activity to high-emission countries around the world.

The blueprint also includes measures to build on the UK’s leading efforts in moving towards greener energy sources, with an expectation of 20TWh of the UK industry’s energy supply switching from fossil fuel sources to low carbon alternatives by 2030 – helping industry to increase its use of low carbon energy sources to around 40 per cent of industry’s total energy consumption.

Already £171m from the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge has been allocated to nine green technology projects in Scotland, South Wales and North West, Humber and Teesside in England, to undertake engineering and design studies for the rollout of decarbonisation infrastructure, such as carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) and hydrogen. To reduce carbon emissions from public buildings including hospitals, schools and council buildings, £932m has been directed to 429 projects across England. The Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme funds low carbon heating systems, such as heat pumps, and energy efficiency measures like insulation and LED lighting.

The Government will also introduce new rules on measuring the energy and carbon performance of the UK’s largest commercial and industrial buildings, including office blocks and factories, in England and Wales.

Other key commitments within the Strategy include the use of carbon pricing as tool for getting industry to take account of their emissions in business and investment decisions and proposals for new product standards, enabling manufacturers to clearly distinguish their products from high carbon competitors.

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