UK to fall behind US on green tech?

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A plan by US president-elect Barack Obama to invest £150 billion to create five million so-called “green collar” jobs could leave the UK green tech sector struggling to catch up, the Environmental Industries Commission (EIC) has warned.

Obama has said he will convert manufacturing plants into clean technology centres, as well as double research funding and create a clean technology deployment venture capital fund.

Adrian Wilkes, EIC chairman, called on the UK government to follow Obama’s lead and offer funding and skills development for the green tech industry. “The Government must back UK companies to seize the opportunity to lead the world in environmental technologies, or else millions of jobs that could have been created in the UK will go abroad to countries like the USA that are putting in place comprehensive support programmes,” he said.

“Obama has set out a comprehensive and exciting set of policies to support the USA in the transition to a low carbon and resource efficient economy. This is a warning to Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson that the UK risks falling behind in the race to develop the environmental technologies of the future,” Wilkes added.

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