Net zero strategy: Government plans will ‘support up to 440,000 jobs’, minister says – as plans to end sale of new petrol and diesel cars revealed | UK News

The government’s net zero strategy will “support up to 440,000 jobs” by 2030, a business minister has said – as he announced a move towards the end of the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.

The new plan, published on Tuesday, has the intention of dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions to reach the government’s aim of net zero by 2050.

It comes less than two weeks before world leaders will meet at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow to discuss how to reduce the effects of climate change.

Making a statement on the government’s aims in the Commons, Greg Hands told MPs the strategy “is not just an environmental transition, it represents an important economic change too”.

But Greenpeace UK’s head of politics, Rebecca Newsom, described the government’s strategy as “more like a pick and mix than the substantial meal that we need to reach net zero”.

Announcements in the strategy include:

• An aim to fully decarbonise the power system by 2035

• Path towards all heating appliances in homes and workplaces from 2035 being low carbon

• An “ambition” that by 2035 no new gas boilers will be sold

• £450m three-year Boiler Upgrade Scheme to offer households grants for low-carbon heating systems

• £60m Heat Pump Ready programme

• To secure a decision on a large-scale nuclear plant by 2024

• 40GW of offshore wind by 2030

• To deliver 5GW of hydrogen production capacity by 2030 while halving oil and gas emissions

• To end sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 with £620m for zero emission vehicle grants

• £2bn investment to help half of journeys in towns and cities to be cycled or walked by 2030

• £120m to develop small modular nuclear reactors

A review published by the Treasury says “the costs of global inaction significantly outweigh the costs of action” to tackle climate change.

The…