Title: Net zero: economy and jobs | Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit
Headings: Net zero: economy and jobs
Net zero: economy and jobs
Economic growth and tackling climate change
A net zero economy
Sectors in transition
Sectors in decline
Growth sectors
Taxation
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Content: Growth sectors
About 80% of UK GDP comes from services and there are many opportunities in high-value services such as financing low-carbon projects, climate-risk assessments, legal and consulting expertise. The Government has said it wants the UK to ‘ continue to lead the way’ in green finance and committed to issuing the UK’s first Sovereign Green Bond in 2021 as well as mandate ‘ reporting of climate related financial information across the economy by 2025’. The Government has also said it wants to be a global leader in carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS), where carbon dioxide emitted is captured and either used or stored, and announced £1bn of support for this. The Government also sees great potential in hydrogen as a zero-carbon fuel and has launched several pots of funding to trial and demonstrate hydrogen technologies for transport, heating and in industry. It aims to have the first hydrogen town up and running by 2030, and up to 20% blends of hydrogen in the gas grid in 2021. There is already a project going ahead in the North West of England developing hydrogen for use within the glass refining industry. Taxation
With the decline of some industries (e.g. fossil fuels) the Government could see a reduction in tax take (e.g. fuel duty) and so may need to alter fiscal policy. The UK already has a carbon floor price which is a levy paid by electricity generating companies on the emission of carbon dioxide, aimed at encouraging cleaner forms of power generation, but also generating revenue for the Treasury. The idea of an economy-wide carbon tax has been put forward by think tanks, politicians and academics as a way of discouraging emissions and generating revenue. A white paper from the Zero Carbon Campaign found that a carbon price trajectory that reaches £75/tonne of CO 2 by 2030, charged on all upstream emissions producers, could generate £27bn by 2030.