The UK has today kick-started a renewed push for a global climate deal as the prime minister co-chairs the most significant climate meeting since Copenhagen.
The UN secretary-general's High Level Advisory Group on Climate Finance, to be held in Downing Street, will involve three heads of government, two finance ministers, Barack Obama's chief economic adviser Larry Summers, and other key figures including George Soros and Nick Stern. The group will look at how the world will deliver on its commitment to provide $100bn of public and private finance a year by 2020.
The government has also outlined more support for the UK's own low carbon transition with funding for renewables development and a consultation to ensure workers and businesses are prepared to take advantage of the growing need for green skills.
The government is also setting out its plans to encourage efforts to get a legally binding global treaty.
Energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband said: "We've got to dust ourselves down and kick-start efforts to get a global deal, get the climate finance flowing and make sure the cuts promised by countries happen.
"We need to do this, not just for environmental reasons, but also for economic ones. In the UK, strategic intervention by the Government is unlocking green investment and generating jobs for the future. Low carbon growth will be stronger, and businesses will have greater certainty, when the world agrees to a legally binding deal."
Today's announcements include a new action plan on international climate change (‘Beyond Copenhagen: The UK Government's International Climate Change Action Plan'), which shows what must be done to build on the progress made at Copenhagen. The plan sets out the Government's belief that the low carbon transformation can be a major driver of economic growth and job creation – in the UK, in Europe and globally. In it the UK Government makes clear it wants to build on the strengths of the Kyoto Protocol, and is open to extending that agreement as a way of getting the legal deal it needs. The government is pushing for the EU to increase its plans to cut emissions in line with comparable moves elsewhere, and is supporting the European Commission's work to identify the practical steps required to implement a 30% target.
The Action Plan builds on the Copenhagen Accord, in which countries have put forward actions that, if delivered in full, would see global emissions peak before 2020, a key step towards achieving the 2 degrees goal.
Also announced was a consultation on a new low carbon skills strategy, which includes co-funding the delivery of up to 2,500 apprenticeships in the emerging wind energy sector, in line with the sector's ambition for the size of its workforce in 2017. The joint consultation document produced with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills sets out what the government knows about the scale and nature of the low-carbon skills challenge, what it is already doing to tackle it, and seeks views on what more needs to happen.
This follows the Government's commitment to co-fund the delivery of up to 1,000 apprenticeships per year in the nuclear energy sector in the light of a report by Cogent, the Sector Skills Council for Nuclear Energy.
Further Education and Skills Minister Kevin Brennan said: "One year on from our New Industry New Jobs commitment to drive growth in new sectors, we are continuing to invest in the skills and markets that are so vital to the UK's economy: especially low carbon.
"This is why we are talking to employers to understand their needs and why, with them, we are co-funding 2,500 apprenticeships in wind energy.
"We have listened to specialists and to the public and we will continue to listen through today's consultation on low carbon skills. We remain, as ever, dedicated to a low-carbon economy and to giving people the chance to get into a new career in a new industries."
Further measures to support the development of the renewables industry in the UK were also announced. This includes £4m as part of a landmark partnership between DECC, Ministry of Defence, The Crown Estate and four wind farm developers, to fund a new radar for the Greater Wash that will address interference that can be associated with older types of radar.
This will allow the construction of one wind farm (Sheringham Shoal) and remove one of the barriers in considering the consent applications of other wind farms, as well as potentially a further 4-6GW offshore wind under Round 3 of the Crown Estate's leasing for offshore wind development. A grant of £750,000 is also awarded for test facilities for micro wind turbines.
Last week Siemens, Mitsubishi and General Electric decided to locate manufacturing facilities in the UK. This followed the Budget announcement of £60m to develop sites close to ports suitable for turbine manufacturing, and the new £2bn Green Investment Bank. Strategic intervention by the Government is unlocking this investment, generating a new industrial sector in the UK that could employ a high skilled workforce of 70,000 by 2020.
The government has also published plans that will set out how every major department will address the challenge of climate change in the UK. The Carbon Reduction Delivery and Adaptation Plans detail each department's commitment to minimise the damage of climate change, by reducing emissions and by preparing for inevitable change in the UK climate.
