Kwarteng says green transition plans are ‘enormous economic opportunity’

The Business Secretary has said the government’s green transition plans are an “enormous” opportunity amid criticism of their cost to the taxpayer.

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 ‘Today’ programme this morning, the Business Secretary, Kwarsi Kwarteng said: “As far as our economy is concerned, I think the green challenge, represents enormous economic opportunity.”

He emphasised that the UK had “reduced carbon emissions by 44% since 1990, which is the biggest reduction of emissions, of any advanced economic country, of any of the G7,” while growing the economy by nearly 80% in the same time period.

He said that while “people focus on what they think are costs [of green policies]… I am making the point that actually in order to make the transition, we will need to attract huge amounts of private capital that will actually drive down costs”.

“The evidence that we have is what has happened in the last 9 years. If you look at electricity generation, 8 years ago in 2012, you will see that 40% of that essentially came from burning coal. Today that figure is between 1% and 2%, and what has made up the difference is renewables, particularly offshore wind”.

His comments come just hours after Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay heavily criticised the government’s net-zero plans. He told LBC Radio yesterday evening that the costs of retrofitting British houses “are truly colossal”, and could reach “over £30,000 per household”— around £960 billion in taxation.