Community Capital

Industry Consulting Team

Oxford Economics

This report sponsored by Energy UK uses Oxford Economics’ City Climate Service to examine the regional impacts of the transition to Net Zero. It explores the potential for decarbonisation to close regional disparities and gives examples of areas which have current or future specialisms in decarbonisation technologies.

The transition to Net Zero has the potential to bring economic growth to all parts of the UK. Under the most optimistic transition to Net Zero Scenario, we estimate that by 2050 regions outside of London and the South East could see a GDP boost of £141 billion in today’s prices. This is more than the current contribution to UK GDP made by Northern Ireland and Wales combined.

The transition to Net Zero provides local areas with opportunities to specialise and grow new industries. For example, areas with a large concentration of carbon-intensive industries and a proximity to depleted oil and gas fields are well suited to develop industrial carbon capture, usage, and storage (CCUS) sites.

Many regions that host large manufacturing sectors are expected to benefit from the green transition because of the need to manufacture products such as wind turbines and equipment needed to power electrification. Moreover, wind, solar, and other low-carbon power producers provide high wage employment in rural areas, where employment opportunities and earnings are less plentiful than elsewhere. Oxford Economics’ Industry climate service provides more detail on the impact of the transition to Net Zero on different industries.

Read the report

The experts behind the research

Our Industry Consulting team are among the world’s leading analysts of a variety of industrial sectors. They combine their expert insight with our state-of-the-art economic models and tools to answer the crucial questions facing our clients.