As Trump Tries to Stall Clean Energy Progress, UK’s Version is Running Circles Around the Rest of Its Economy

The report, commissioned by the non-profit Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit and conducted by the Confederation of British Industry, found that the net zero economy generates more than £83 billion (around $105 billion) in “gross added value” to the country. Over 22,000 individual businesses employe almost one million people (of around 33 million total in the UK workforce), and every pound generated specifically in this sector creates £1.89 in the wider economy.

“It is clear, you can’t have growth without green – 2025 is the year when the rubber really hits the road, where inaction is indisputably costlier than action,” said CBI’s chief economist Louise Hellem.

There is now plenty of evidence to the economic benefits involved with clean energy and related industry. An International Energy Agency report from last year found that clean energy accounted for 10 percent of the world’s GDP growth in 2023; in Europe, it accounted for nearly one third of the growth. An International Monetary Fund analysis found huge net benefits to the global economy if net zero is achieved by 2050.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump has made it a central mission to undermine the US version of this attempt, freezing spending on clean energy projects and issuing various edicts intended to let the oil and gas industry walk all over its cleaner competitors. From an overall economic standpoint, it is pretty blatantly a losing strategy, especially as other rich countries take up the slack.