‘The Humber is a great example of a green transition leading to growth’
GOVERNMENT’S CLEAN ENERGY EXPERT PRAISES
THE Humber’s global leadership aspirations for Net Zero delivery and knowledge export have been verified by a senior government official.
Catriona Graham is director for clean growth in Europe with the Department for International Trade, while also sitting as Consul General in Milan.
She addressed The Waterline Summit from Italy, and told how the Energy Estuary had already inspired the UK’S green industrial revolution as articulated through Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ten-point plan, thanks to the trailblazing success in offshore wind.
Ms Graham, a Cambridge physics graduate who also holds a masters in Sustainable Energy Engineering from Edinburgh University, said: “I think the Humber is a really great example of transition.
“The Humber, as a region of the UK, benefited from the first industrial revolution based around coal, and it is interesting that the industrial revolution we are now seeing in the Humber is based around the removal of coal from our economy, and it is fantastic to see the same region growing in the same way, but this time in a green sense.
“The Humber can be an example for other regions around the world that the green transition leads to economic growth, leads to new jobs.
Success, particularly around offshore wind, has inspired the nationwide plan that the Prime Minister has launched - the ten-point plan for green industrial revolution for the entire UK.
“One of those points is offshore wind, but it also includes all other sectors as well; hydrogen, nuclear power, zero emission vehicles, the maritime industry, etc.
“I think we are going to see the opportunities - and we already are in the Humber - broadening from just offshore wind to all of those sectors as well.
It is not just the UK that is doing this - 70 per cent of the global economy is now covered by a Net Zero target of some kind, so 70 per cent of the world is going to be going through a similar growth trajectory and needs the expertise that is now really very well established in the Humber region to succeed in that journey.”
Only last week she had welcomed new International Trade Secretary Anne-marie Trevelyan, who took on the role after a brief stint as Clean Energy Minister under BEIS - touring transitioning Humber plants with progress touched on in Rome.