Boris Johnson will pledge £160m for offshore wind power

Boris Johnson will promise to “build back greener” in his conference speech on Tuesday, announcing new investment in offshore wind energy.

The PM will pledge £160m to upgrade ports and factories for building turbines, setting a target for wind to produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of every UK home by 2030.

The plan aims to create 2,000 jobs in construction and support 60,000 more.

He will say the UK is to become “the world leader in clean wind energy”.

Mr Johnson’s speech comes after he made a pledge at a UN biodiversity summit in New York to protect 30% of UK land for nature as a “boost for biodiversity”.

The scheme will see the money invested into manufacturing in Teesside and Humber in Northern England, as well as sites in Scotland and Wales.

Mr Johnson said the government was raising its target for offshore wind power capacity by 2030 from 30 gigawatts to 40 gigawatts.

The commitments are the first stage of a 10-point plan for a “green industrial revolution” from the government, with No 10 promising the rest of the details later this year to “accelerate our progress towards net zero emissions by 2050”.

The net zero target means greenhouse gas emissions would be dramatically slashed and any remaining emissions offset, neutralising environmental impacts and slowing climate change.

Mr Johnson’s speech comes amid criticism, including from some Conservative MPs, about his administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the BBC’s political correspondent Jess Parker says.

She adds that the PM may be hoping to lift people’s view beyond the present, by trying to show he has big plans – and a clear focus – for the future.

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Mr Johnson will tell the Conservative Party’s virtual conference he believes that in 10 years’ time, “offshore wind will be powering every home in the country”.

“Your kettle, your washing machine, your cooker, your heating, your plug-in electric vehicle – the whole lot of them will get their juice cleanly and without guilt from the breezes that blow around these islands.

“Far out in the deepest waters we will harvest the gusts, and by upgrading infrastructure in places like Teesside and Humber and Scotland and Wales, we will increase an offshore wind capacity that is already the biggest in the world.”

The PM will also repeat his pledge for the UK to become the “Saudi Arabia of wind power”, adding: “As Saudi Arabia is to oil, the UK is to wind – a place of almost limitless resource, but in the case of wind without the carbon emissions and without the damage to the environment.”

Source – https://www.bbc.co.uk/