‘We must act early in low-carbon transition to take full advantage’

Businesses here and abroad must apply their best ideas, engineering skills and technologies to forge ahead in a changing world, says Ed Miliband

The transition to low carbon will lead to a restructuring of economies around the world, and it is my job to make sure that we make this transition as urgently as possible, and in a way that helps British businesses to take advantage of the new opportunities.
In the energy sector, we are moving to a trinity of flow-carbon sources, each with potential for supply chains and industrial opportunities in Britain. With the developing technologies for coal, for example, it is possible to capture 90 per cent of the emissions at the power plant and store them permanently underground.
We are providing funding and setting rules for new coal-fired power stations in such a way both to prove the technology and to seed new clusters of low-carbon industries.
Similarly, the renewable power industry has doubled in the past five years, and last year wind provided enough power for two million homes. In the next decade, though, the amount of renewable power is set to increase even faster, as energy suppliers have to show they have used it for a fixed and rising proportion of their supply.

This will mean new opportunities in manufacturing, as well as in the shift to a smart grid that balances power from intermittent sources. To maximise the opportunities for Britain, industrial funds can attract investment from abroad and kick-start export industries.
Nuclear power, too, is undergoing a renaissance, as many who originally opposed it rethink their views in the face of climate change and the need to cut emissions. The construction of each of the new power stations could provide up to 9,000 jobs – we need to make sure that the skills are in place and the supply chains are prepared. In each of these areas, we need dynamic and effective companies, but we also need government to play its role, setting the right framework to drive the technology forward.
The transition to a low-carbon economy will no longer be a niche activity but, like the internet, part of how everyone does business. We must make sure that Britain acts early by providing certainty about the path ahead.
With the introduction of legally binding carbon budgets, we know the carbon savings we have to make: a third of 1990 emissions by 2020, and 80 per cent by 2050. Every business knows that the transition is not a case of if, but when.
Businesses around the country are rising to this challenge. When I take part in negotiation abroad, it strengthens my hand that British industry has been forward-thinking on climate change.
I can point to the savings that have been made by British companies and the fact that they argue not for weakening ambition, but for all countries to do their bit.
Other countries, from China to the United States, are also seeing that it can be a mission of prosperity rather than one of austerity.
But we need businesses, here and around the world, to apply their ideas, their engineering skills, their technologies, to help to chart that course to a low-carbon world.
— Ed Miliband is Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change