A new group of industry, university and local government leaders have come together to form a powerful new collaboration to secure ‘game-changing’ investment in the future of clean growth in the North West of England.
Led by Richard Carter, Chairman of the North West Business Leadership Team (NWBLT) and Managing Director of BASF for UK, the group has announced its response to the Government’s challenge to establish a Low Carbon Industrial Cluster by 2030. The goal is a world first that would attract innovators, investors and problem solvers to create a low-carbon exemplar that others in the UK and internationally can learn from and replicate. The North West group consists of private and public sector partners from across the Liverpool City Region, Cheshire and Warrington, and Greater Manchester. A list of supporters is below.
Richard Carter, Chairman of the NWBLT, said: “This collaboration represents one of the most vibrant clusters in the UK with a wide range of energy intensive industry partners. We are already home to a number of existing complementary initiatives that, when brought together, represent a game-changing opportunity. We believe, with appropriate Government support, that this will result in the North West meeting the challenge of becoming the UK’s first low carbon industrial cluster by 2030.”
David Parkin, of Progressive Energy has been instrumental in bringing partners together: “Innovation will be key to the success of this plan and the region is also supported by a network of experts in the field of industrial decarbonisation, from our major Universities and from the private sector. The joint response sets out the decarbonisation challenge for the region, a proposed delivery model, and in excess of £500 million of prospective investment from the private sector.”
Christine Gaskell CBE, Chairman of the Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership: “There is no better place to be leading the clean-growth agenda than the North West – harnessing our world-class innovation track record, academic expertise and the energy-intensive industry that’s located here – through working together we can co-create the UK’s first low carbon, and in time zero carbon, industrial cluster further cementing our international reputation and bringing new jobs and capital investment to the region.”
Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region: “We are rightly planning for the long term and a zero carbon future, and we are taking urgent action now. In the Liverpool City Region our low carbon sector is already worth £2 billion a year to our economy, while employing 22,000 people and we stand ready to play a key role in creating the UK’s first low carbon cluster. Just a fortnight ago, I launched our own £10 million Green Investment Fund, which will back renewable energy projects and support my ambition for a zero-carbon city region by 2040.”
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester: “Doing things differently doesn’t just mean a new set of policies – it means a new approach altogether. I want Greater Manchester to be the best place in the world to grow up, get on and grow old: clean, green and vibrant.
“At our Green Summit later this month we will publish an ambitious new plan which will make a significant impact on this city-region in the short term. We will transform our buildings, revolutionise the way we travel and restore our natural environment.
“Cities, and city-regions, will make the difference on climate change and, in working to decarbonise in the North West, we can create a blueprint for every other city in the world. It wouldn’t be the first time. We can change ourselves, and we can inspire change in others.”
