NWF unveils $137bn plan to drive UK clean energy investment

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) has announced plans aimed astatine mobilising much than £100bn ($137bn) of concern successful the UK economy.

The NWF UK concern strategy outlines planned enactment for companies, infrastructure and proviso chains to beforehand growth, generating much than 200,000 jobs and cutting CO₂-equivalent greenhouse state emissions by 500 cardinal tonnes by 2050.

The caller program outlines 3 cardinal ambitions, including unlocking maturation opportunities successful cleanable vigor by prioritising concern successful decarbonisation projects and industries with the imaginable to little costs for households and businesses.

The program besides aims to beforehand place-based concern crossed each 4 UK nations done the Regional Project Accelerator, and to fortify sovereign capabilities by backing sectors cardinal to nationalist information and aboriginal manufacture leadership, specified arsenic defence, captious minerals, AI and greenish steel.

To execute these aims, the NWF volition ore connected concern and infrastructure priorities.

Over the adjacent 5 years, it has identified 10 sectors with large catalytic potential: artillery manufacturing and electrical conveyance proviso chain; c capture; vigor storage; hydrogen; nuclear; place-based regeneration; ports and proviso chains; powerfulness grid; steel; and transport infrastructure.

Within these sectors, the money expects to allocate £5.8bn during this period, contingent connected investable opportunities and argumentation support.

Additionally, the money volition question concern prospects crossed 15 further sectors including semiconductors, quantum technologies, AI, offshore upwind and sustainable aviation fuels.

This attack aims to code marketplace gaps, pull backstage superior and accelerate high-impact projects aligned with section and nationalist priorities.

NWF CEO Oliver Holbourn said: “This is an breathtaking caller section for the National Wealth Fund arsenic we look to unlock the UK’s future.

“We volition beryllium going further and faster to thrust much than £100bn into the economy, afloat deploying our superior implicit the adjacent 5 years to assistance thrust economical growth, accelerate the modulation to cleanable energy, alteration communities with place-based investments, and fortify our self-sufficiency, information and resilience.”

So far, one-third of the fund’s superior has been committed, mobilising much than £17bn successful backstage concern and creating oregon supporting much than 70,000 jobs.

The caller strategy commits to deploying the remaining superior wrong 5 years to backmost authorities goals astir maturation and cleanable energy, portion delivering returns for taxpayers.

The NWF has committed much than $800m to Scottish Power, a subsidiary of Iberdrola, to enactment the upgrade of the UK’s powerfulness grid.