It’s Wednesday, November 18, and the U.K. has released its plan for a “green industrial revolution.”
There’s been talk of a U.S. “Green New Deal” and a European “Green Deal,” and now the U.K. is getting into the game as well. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a 10-point plan for what his government calls the U.K.’s “green industrial revolution” — a clean energy spending plan that he says will create 250,000 jobs.
The plan, unveiled on Tuesday, includes a ban on gasoline-powered cars by 2030 (10 years earlier than the government originally planned), pledges to rapidly expand offshore wind energy and nuclear power, and a push to increase production of hydrogen fuel.
Some green groups welcomed the plan, which Johnson’s government has estimated will cost a total of $15.9 billion. But others, including the minority Labour party, criticized it for not being ambitious enough. Labour politicians argued that only $5.3 billion of the policy proposal represents new spending.
The U.K. is under pressure from its citizens and the international community to take significant steps forward on climate change. The COP26 climate conference is set to be held in Glasgow in November 2021, and all eyes will be on Britain to set an example by decarbonizing its economy.
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