UK’s Blueprint For The World’s First Low-Carbon Industrial Sector

UK’s Blueprint For The World’s First Low-Carbon Industrial Sector The UK government has announced an ambitious blueprint to deliver the world’s first low-carbon industrial sector and over £1 billion to cut emissions from industry, schools and hospitals.

This new Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy sets out the government’s vision for building a competitive, greener future for the manufacturing and construction sector, part of the government’s path to net zero by 2050. It is expected that these new measures will generate and support 80,000 UK jobs over the next 30 years whilst cutting emissions by two-thirds in just 15 years.

Ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) which will be held in Glasgow in November, 2021, this blueprint will be viewed as showing the UK’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions.



The blueprint also includes measures moving towards greener energy sources and to kick start the process, £171 million from the Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge has been allocated to 9 green tech projects in Scotland, South Wales and North West, Humber and Teesside in England.

Other key commitments within the Strategy include:

  • to use carbon pricing as tool for getting industry to take account of their emissions in business and investment decisions
  • to establish the right policy framework to ensure uptake of fuel switching in industry from fossil fuels to low carbon alternatives such as hydrogen, electricity or biomass
  • to establish a targeted approach to mitigate against carbon leakage that meets the government’s domestic and global climate goals, while keeping businesses competitive
  • to develop proposals for new product standards, enabling manufacturers to clearly distinguish their products from high carbon competitors
  • to explore the role of coordinated action on public procurement to create demand for green industrial products, helping to drive down costs and allowing a broader market to develop
  • use the government’s Infrastructure Delivery Taskforce, named ‘Project Speed’, to ensure the land planning regime is fit for building low carbon infrastructure
  • to work with the recently re-constituted Steel Council to consider the implications of the recommendation of the Climate Change Committee to ‘set targets for ore-based steelmaking to reach near-zero emissions by 2035’
  • support the skills transition so that the current and future workforce benefit from the creation of new green jobs
  • an expectation that industrial emissions will fall by two-thirds by 2035, and by at least 90% by 2050, compared to 2018 levels
  • an expectation that at least 3 megatons of CO2 is captured within industry per year by 2030, compared to minimal levels at present

The new strategy will be underpinned by supporting existing industry to decarbonise and encourage the growth of new, low carbon industries in the UK to protect and create skilled jobs and businesses, 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. To reduce carbon emissions from public buildings including hospitals, schools and council buildings, £932 million has been directed to 429 projects across England.

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