The North East is well set to become a major centre for the 海角视频鈥檚 net zero push - but needs help from the Government to achieve that.
That was the view of a panel of business leaders speaking as the CBI鈥檚 annual conference kicked off with a session at the Port of Tyne in South Shields that featured keynote speeches from Prime Minister Boris Johnson and CBI director-general Tony Danker.
In an unusual speech that saw him lose his way and make references to Peppa Pig and Lenin, Mr Johnson also sought to set out how pursuing green policies could help in the 鈥渕oral mission鈥 to level up the 海角视频.
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That theme was then brought up at a panel discussion featuring Kevin Fitzpatrick, senior vice president at Nissan, Northumbrian Water CEO Heidi Mottram, Gilbert Corrales, CEO of technology firm Leaf, and Matt Beeton, CEO of the Port of Tyne.
The panel discussed the North East business community鈥檚 resilience in the face of the Covid pandemic and other challenges, and also pointed to the opportunities in the green energy sector to create jobs in the region.
Mr Beeton said: 鈥淭he North East was responsible for starting the Industrial Revolution and geography has given us the opportunity to start the next one, the green industrial revolution.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had to be agile and invest in the right things in the last couple of years but we鈥檝e come out of the other side of that with so many opportunities. We鈥檙e collaborating with so many other businesses in the region and that鈥檚 going to deliver jobs.
鈥淚n offshore wind, there鈥檚 going be 70,000 jobs down the east coast in the next four years, and 70% of them are going to be high-skilled, well-paying jobs. If we can鈥檛 play our part in that, and dedicated our strategy to that, we鈥檙e missing an opportunity.鈥
Mr Beeton鈥檚 optimism was shared by Mr Fitzpatrick, who said he thought there was a 鈥渟incerity鈥 to the Government鈥檚 levelling up agenda.
But both he and Ms Mottram said that Government support was still needed to help the transition away from traditional technologies and support businesses to drive that switch.
The conference came on the same day that the Dogger Bank Wind Farm officially broke ground on its operations and maintenance base at the Port of Tyne to reinforce the region鈥檚 position at the centre of the net zero drive.
Mark Halliday, operations director for Dogger Bank, said: 鈥淒ogger Bank Wind Farm will be a large contributor to the 海角视频鈥檚 net zero ambitions, at the same time creating jobs and bringing investments to the local economy.
鈥淭his ground-breaking is a proud moment for the project and marks the start of more than 35 years鈥 presence by the Dogger Bank operations team here at Port of Tyne. As well as building a state-of-the-art facility, we are looking forward to building up a fantastic team based here and working with others in the region to develop a world-leading offshore wind cluster.鈥
