Labour embarks on 'green revolution'

Friday, 6 March 2009 12:00 AM

By Laura Miller

Gordon Brown will today outline his 'green new deal' as part of efforts to kill two birds with one stone using a low carbon economic recovery plan.

The PM, Peter Mandelson, business secretary, and Ed Miliband, energy and climate change secretary, will meet business leaders at the Low Carbon Industrial Strategy Summit in London to discuss the economic and environmental benefits of a shift towards green business.

Mr Brown will focus on the billions of pounds of savings energy and resource efficiency will bring to businesses and the public sector. He will also outline plans for Britain to lead as a supplier of global green industry as the global economy as a whole moves to low carbon.

Business secretary Peter Mandelson said: "Low carbon is not a sector of our economy, it is, or will be, our whole economy, and a global market.

"Today we are asking what more needs to be done to ensure these changes benefit the UK economy, and what needs to be done to equip British companies to compete for low carbon business in Britain and overseas.

"A low carbon industrial strategy must seize the opportunities that will come with change. That requires a new industrial activism for a new green industrial revolution."

The government's Low Carbon Industrial Strategy will aim for step change in four key areas: energy efficiency; an energy infrastructure - in renewables, nuclear, carbon capture and storage and a 'smart' grid; making the UK a global leader in the development and production of low carbon vehicles; ensuring the UK is the best place for international companies to locate and develop a low carbon business.

Energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband said: "The shift to low carbon in the UK, and around the world is now largely inevitable. What is not inevitable is that Britain benefits industrially from the transition. We want to mobilise every bit of expertise and ingenuity that Britain has to offer.

"Moving to a low carbon economy is the way to secure the economic recovery and growth we need at home and take a lead internationally to protect the future of the planet."

The Tories have also coupled economic recovery with greener ways of doing business in their Low Carbon Economy green paper.

Greg Clark, shadow energy and climate change secretary, warned today's summit must not become "yet another talking shop".

The Tories own four-point plan includes ensuring carbon capture and storage is fitted to all new coal-fired power stations and for every home to be fitted with up to £6,500 of energy efficiency improvements, with the cost being repaid through fuel bills.

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