Overview
Economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic must put tackling climate change and restoring nature at its heart.
Ministers have pledged to ‘build back better’ while also levelling up the country. This rhetoric must translate into concrete policy proposals.
In 2021, we brought together diverse voices in business and civil society under our ‘green renewal’ project to make sure the UK takes the opportunity to build a greener and fair economy for all.
Our work

Using expert analysis commissioned from WPI Economics, we looked at the potential for new jobs in nature restoration across Britain. We revealed that areas with the greatest employment challenges, including many ‘Red Wall’ areas, have significant potential for new skilled green jobs, eg in seagrass planting, tree planting, wetlands and peatland restoration.
With so much potential for a more circular economy, we researched new job opportunities across repair, reuse, recycling and remanufacturing. We found that 450,000 jobs could be created in these industries by 2035, and many of these would be in regions where jobs are needed most, across the North, the Midlands and Wales.
The UK faces acute skills shortages across the sectors it most urgently needs to decarbonise. Our study of future needs for a greener economy finds that a targeted green skills programme would speed up action to both reach net zero and address regional inequities.
Public First conducted ten focus groups for Green Alliance to work out what prospective applicants think about the sorts of jobs that might become available as the green economy develops.