UK’s growing green economy worth more than £100bn a year, research finds

The findings are good news for Ed Miliband, the UK’s secretary of state for energy security and net zero. Photograph: Thomas Krych/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen The findings are good news for Ed Miliband, the UK’s secretary of state for energy security and net zero. Photograph: Thomas Krych/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock UK’s growing green economy worth more than £100bn a year, research finds Net zero industry accounts for more than a million jobs and benefits whole country, according to CBI Economics More than a million jobs, higher wages, nearly half a trillion pounds in investment in the pipeline – the UK’s green economy is powering ahead, according to research by the country’s leading business organisation. The net zero economy, which is worth more than £100bn a year, benefits all of the UK, according to the CBI Economics analysis commissioned by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit thinktank, despite critics who want to abolish the UK’s net zero targets . Net zero workers also enjoy higher wages, topping £43,000 a year on average, about 11% higher than the national average of £39,000. View image in fullscreen Viking windfarm in Shetland. Photograph: Dave Donaldson/Alamy Louise Hellem, chief economist for the CBI, said: “Clean power and decarbonisation are already a significant and growing part of the UK’s industrial base. Across energy, manufacturing, services and supply chains, the UK has the expertise to build on this strength and capture even greater commercial opportunities.” About 308,000 people are employed directly in businesses such as solar panel installation, home insulation, wind turbine manufacturing and electric vehicles. When their supply chains and related businesses are taken into account, this reaches 1.1m jobs, and accounts for £105bn in “gross value added”, a measure of economic activity similar to GDP. That equates to nearly 4% of the UK’s economic output. An estimated £455bn of potential investment in energy infrastructure is also in the pipeline, the report found. These developments have been spurred by the government’s target of decarbonising the UK’s electricity by 2030 , and stringent goals on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the near term, to reach net zero by 2050. Each worker in the net zero economy generates nearly £120,000 a year for the wider economy, the research found. This is about one-and-a-half times the national average for adding value, at a time when the UK is struggling with low productivity . About 22,000 small businesses around the UK are engaged in activities based on the push to cut greenhouse gas emissions and boost renewable energy, according to the report. Yet the main rightwing parties, the Conservatives and Reform UK, want to scrap the net zero targets and row back on support for renewable energy . Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, has also called for an end to net zero and a push for fossil fuels instead. Hellem made clear that turning away from net z