Brexit could help Boris’s green revolution come to life

Boris Johnson announced his new ten-point plan for Britain’s transition to a net-zero carbon emissions economy this week. It is expected that other countries will follow. The EU has a stated aim of achieving a net-zero economy by 2050, with a 60 per cent reduction in emissions from 1990 levels by 2030. This presents an opportunity to develop British industry to a position where it can capitalise on the opportunities presented.

The word ‘develop’ is doing a lot of work in that sentence, of course. What might it involve? There is certainly an emphasis in the plans announced on more R&D, including innovations around hydrogen and nuclear power, low emission shipping and aviation, and carbon-capture and storage (CCS). But to create a self-sustaining green industrial ecosystem in a decade is likely to need more than just R&D funding. And this is where we might run into problems regarding state aid.

According to the definition on the government’s