Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Green Alliance's report entitled Getting the building blocks right Infrastructure priorities for a green recovery, published on 11 November 2020, whether the Government has made an assessment of whether there is an investment gap as cited in that report in helping the Government to reach its net-zero target; and if he will make a statement.
Delivering net zero requires the deep decarbonisation of all sectors – with the CCC estimating that low carbon investment should reach £50 billion a year by 2050. Financial services will be a critical enabler of green investment at the pace and scale required – and that is why green finance is a key priority for this Government. Our approach has seen the UK power sector attract over £93 billion of green investment since 2010.
Spanning clean energy, buildings, transport, nature and innovative technologies, the 10 Point Plan has committed £12 billion of government investment and will unlock three times as much from the private sector by 2030. The Government has also recently launched a new infrastructure bank for the UK which will co-invest alongside private sector investors and accelerate our ambitions for tackling climate change and levelling up. The UK Infrastructure Bank will have an initial £12 billion of capital to deploy and will be able to issue £10 billion of government guarantees, helping to unlock more than £40 billion of overall investment. This year the Government will also issue its first Sovereign Green Bond - subject to market conditions – helping to finance projects that will tackle climate change.