Business leaders want Cheshire to lead the way in zero-carbon technology over the next 20 years, writes Stephen Topping.<\/p>\n
Cheshire and Warrington local enterprise partnership (LEP) presented its new local industrial strategy to Cheshire West and Chester Council committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The body wants to grow the area\u2019s economy from \u00a330.9 billion to more than \u00a350 billion by 2040 \u2013 and it believes that \u2018clean growth\u2019 will see the county become a pioneer in that time.<\/p>\n
Philip Cox, the LEP\u2019s chief executive, told the places overview and scrutiny committee: \u201cThis is genuinely the centrepiece of our local industrial strategy \u2013 establishing Cheshire and Warrington as the international centre of expertise for zero-carbon energy and growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe develop that technology and expertise, we do it here, we then export that technology and expertise to the rest of the UK and potentially the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not looking to be the place that produces half of the UK\u2019s hydrogen fuel, or half of the UK\u2019s wind energy, but we do believe that we have got the capability and the capacity to establish ourselves as the home of technology.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Cox told the committee that Cheshire already has \u2018an incredibly diverse energy mix\u2019 \u2013 with the wind farm at Frodsham, low-carbon plants at the Protos site near Helsby and nuclear technology being developed at Birchwood Park, in Warrington, and Capenhurst, near Chester.<\/p>\n
He also suggested that heat produced from Cheshire\u2019s industry could eventually be captured and pumped into the domestic energy network.<\/p>\n
Mr Cox added: \u201cWe have a very carbon-intensive cluster on the south bank of the Mersey, at Ellesmere Port and stretching into Runcorn.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe genuinely believe that we can make that a zero-carbon industrial cluster by using all those things I have described by 2040.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Cheshire] has the potential for use to be a large-scale demonstrator of how you can decarbonise major industrial processes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour Cllr Matt Bryan, CWAC\u2019s climate emergency champion, welcomed the ambition \u2013 particularly after CWAC declared its own climate emergency at May\u2019s full council meeting.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIn our area, per head we generate 2.5 times more CO2 than anywhere else in the UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s probably responsible for a lot of our growth because we\u2019ve got a massive industrial cluster over [near Ellesmere Port] and in Northwich which generate huge amounts of greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if you think you can get that industrial cluster down to net zero by 2040 then I\u2019ll buy you a boat \u2013 it\u2019s brilliant, it\u2019s ambitious, and that\u2019s what we need to be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Cox also highlighted the importance of life sciences laboratories in east Cheshire to the county\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Stephen Topping, local democracy reporter<\/strong> Cheshire and Warrington local enterprise partnership (LEP) presented its new local industrial strategy to Cheshire and Chester Council committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52021,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7089],"tags":[7440,7359,7442,7441],"class_list":["post-52018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-carbon","tag-leaders","tag-local-enterprise-partnership","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nBusiness leaders want Cheshire to lead the way in zero-carbon technology over the next 20 years.<\/p>\n