In contrast, the report found the net zero economy is widely distributed around the UK, with the West Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber, and south-west England containing the largest hotspots of activity, and net zero jobs increasing by 20% in Scotland since 2022.
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, was criticised in January for suggesting economic growth was more important than net zero, but said more recently: “There is no tradeoff between economic growth and net zero.
The net zero sector is growing three times faster than the overall UK economy, analysis has found, providing high-wage jobs across the country while cutting climate-heating emissions and increasing energy security.
Increasing clean energy in the UK would bolster energy security, said Luke Murphy, a Labour MP and the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on climate change: “We don’t want to risk the higher and more volatile energy bills that we’ll get if we continue to rely on fossil fuels.
The report, commissioned by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, analysed the growth attributable to businesses working in areas including renewable energy, electric vehicles, heat pumps, energy storage, green finance and waste management and recycling.
