Reducing emissions to net zero is a substantial task requiring careful planning, coordination and resources to ensure it is both achievable and fair.

The Conservative government has put forward a Ten Point Plan for the UK’s Green Industrial Revolution, with the language in its title evoking a blueprint for combining concern for the environment and the levelling up agenda. The government’s Plan is ambitious and is broadly looking in the right areas to mitigate climate change but while there are admirable targets it is very short on the practical means to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

This paper by CPP Visiting Fellow Nick Tyrone marks the start of a series of CPP publications ahead of COP26, exploring how the UK can transition to a net zero green economy in a way that supports the aims of inclusive growth - leaving no people or places behind.

Nick Tyrone argues that if the government can flesh out its policies, making the targets it has set come to life, then it can start to legitimately work towards the goals of the Green Industrial Revolution. Otherwise, the worry is that the ten-point plan will be just another temporary political exercise – something to do as a showpiece for COP26 and nothing more.

This paper makes recommendations to kick start the UK’s transition and fill in the current lack of detail, exploring a wide range of ideas including: specialist skills hubs to support localised reskilling and upskilling, robust but manageable short term energy targets for commercial properties and new financial instruments to raise funding for the green revolution and to hold government to account.