Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps she is taking to support the creation of jobs through low carbon growth (a) within and (b) outside the UK.

The ONS will publish estimates of the number of people directly employed in the low carbon economy in December 2015. Notwithstanding this, the Government’s commitment to low carbon infrastructure helps support many thousands of highly skilled jobs across the economy. For example, the proposed new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point C is estimated to support around 25,000 jobs, of which 7,000 are local. Similarly, the two Siemens offshore wind facilities in Hull announced in 2014 are estimated to support 1,000 direct jobs and 300 construction jobs. Internationally, low carbon strategies and potential jobs that arise from them will be guided by countries’ delivery of their intended contributions to a global climate change agreement. The UKis committed to supporting the world’s poorest to become more resilient to the effects of a changing climate and to take the clean energy path to growth and prosperity. Its international climate finance has helped support the creation of 39,000 jobs in developing countries up to April this year in relation to low carbon climate resilience.