26 November 2020

Green trade is a great way to help the Red Wall

By Dehenna Davison MP

Leaving the European Union has finally restored the United Kingdom’s sovereignty over our trade policy. The Department for International Trade is currently negotiating a number of ambitious trade deals, and I am confident that we will reach agreement with other like-minded countries. We’ve already struck a deal with Japan, the third largest economy in the world, in record time, and more recently with our close partner Canada.

But our trade policy is not only about boosting our exports around the world, worth over £600 billion at the moment, and cutting prices for consumers and businesses here in Britain. It can also be leveraged to deliver on other key agendas that the Government is prioritising, such as levelling up opportunities across the UK – especially in the North – and reaching net zero emissions by 2050.

The freedom to do more trade with countries outside of the EU was one of the key reasons many people in Bishop Auckland chose to vote for Brexit in 2016 (and again in 2017 and 2019). International trade is one of the key drivers of economic growth. It has brought immense wealth to the UK and other nations over the centuries and has lifted countless people out of poverty in the last few decades alone.

Through trade, I’d like to see Global Britain export our vision for a green industrial revolution and world-leading clean technologies, most of which are manufactured in the North of England. This is why I have joined ten of my northern Conservative colleagues to publish an essay collection with ideas for building a Net Zero Northern Powerhouse with the Conservative Environment Network.

We have a chance to get the Northern Powerhouse firing on all cylinders by backing the many low-carbon industries born and raised in the North. Selling other countries our clean technologies helps them to cut their emissions, and demonstrates that the free market and economic growth are not at odds with protecting the environment – it is a deeply conservative way to tackle climate change.

These technologies will also be key to helping our local economies recover and creating high quality and well paid jobs. The Local Government Association estimates that County Durham could see over 10,000 direct jobs in the low-carbon and renewable energy sector by 2050, with tens of thousands more across the North. These jobs are exactly the sort of opportunities young people in my constituency can get excited about.

The Government could introduce a suite of policies to boost UK-based low-carbon start-ups and grow domestic supply chains, particularly in the renewables sector. We should back the North’s clean tech success stories by helping clean SMEs to export more goods and services abroad. I am encouraged that in our free trade negotiations there are dedicated chapters for SMEs, to help them trade with the rest of the world.

The global economy is seeing exponential growth in demand for clean energy, which is getting cheaper to produce the more of it we build. By 2050, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimates that there will be a seven-fold increase in annual renewable power generation to 47,000 TWh by 2050. We must seize the initiative.

I would like to see the Department for International Trade expand its north-east team of clean growth specialists. By providing more on-the-ground expertise, they could strategically assess local clean export opportunities, build international relationships, and ensure that export finance reached the projects that needed it.

As well as boosting capacity to promote clean tech overseas, DIT could introduce favourable export policies for low-carbon businesses. We should be using our new free trade agreements to open up access for our offshore wind sector into large global markets from the USA to Australia. And we should ensure that our clean energy exports receive a larger share of export finance.

Northern clean technologies should also be clearly on show during the COP26 UN Climate Summit which the UK is hosting next year in Glasgow. As other countries come to the UK to discuss their efforts to tackle climate change, we should be promoting wind turbines and EVs produced in the north of England to help them to achieve their targets.

The north-east was the home of the first industrial revolution. Through our net zero target we can bring industry back to the communities that used to power the rest of the UK, and once again export goods made in the North to the rest of the world, also cementing the north-east’s role in the green revolution. This is the vision of the Net Zero Northern Powerhouse we’ve set out and the government should now seek to deliver.

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Dehenna Davison is MP for Bishop Auckland.

Columns are the author's own opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of CapX.