Britain's green economy defies recession to grow 4.7 per cent | WPN World People News

Defying the economic downturn, the UK green goods and services market pushed past the 122 billion pounds mark last year with a 4.7 per cent annual growth and an additional 5.4 billion pounds of economic activity.

Government figures reveal that the low carbon economy now employs almost one million people, according to a new report released earlier this week by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

In 2009-10, the green economy was pegged at 116.8 billion pounds.

As opposed to the sluggish progress witnessed in the rest of the economy, in the green goods and services market the UK comfortably outperformed the worldwide low carbon and environmental goods and services (LCEGS) market, which expanded by 3.7 per cent to 3.3 trillion pounds.

Low carbon sales activities accounted for around 48 per cent or 1.6 trillion pounds of this with renewable energy clocking up 1trillion pounds, and environmental goods and services accounting for 700billion pounds.

With a 3.7 per cent share of the global market, the UK retained the sixth place in the LCEGS sector in the world, behind the US with 645billion pounds, China with 435 billion pounds, Japan with 205 billion pounds, India at just below 205 billion pounds, and Germany at 140 billion pounds.

The UK showed particular strength in carbon financing and wave and tidal energy, where it ranked second and fifth in the world respectively.

Alternative fuels, building technologies, and wind energy formed the three largest components of the UK's LCEGS sector, although carbon finance, wind, wave and tidal, and carbon capture and storage saw the highest year-on-year increases.

Britain exported 11.8 billion pounds worth of green goods and services with Chinese imports accounting for 825 million pounds of green good and services.

The report said: "The LCEGS sector is dominated by three Low Carbon sub sectors - Alternative Fuels, Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Building Technologies - and two Renewable Energy sub sectors - Wind and Geothermal."

The number of UK companies involved in the LCEGS sector also grew by 0.1 per cent to just under 51,700, reversing a downwards trend that saw numbers fall by 1.2 per cent in 2008-09.

Employment in the sector however jumped 2.8 per cent over the year to 939,627, which the report notes is "the first really positive sign of employment growth in the sector since the recession in 2008".

Led by wind and carbon finance, the government expects the green economy to continue to expand, growing between 4.9 per cent and 5.5 per cent a year from 2011 to 2015.

Source: Economics Industry News.Net