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Green economy defies economic downturn

The UK green economy is defying the economic downturn, taking a £117 billion share of the £3.2 trillion green goods and services market.

New Government figures show that the green goods and services market grew by 4.4% year on year and expanded by £4.8 billion in 2009/10.

The growth of the UK market exceeded the 3.1% global increase by 1.2%, indicating the strength of green business in the UK.

The UK now has the sixth largest Low Carbon and Environmental Goods and Services economy in the world, behind the US, China, India, Japan and Germany.

£11.3 billion worth of green goods and services were also exported from the UK, mostly to Chinese firms who purchased £825 million of green good and services.

The government have also predicted that sales in the sector will grow by between 4% and 6% each year through until 2016/17 based on an increased demand for alternative fuels and carbon finance services.

The report said: “The LCEGS sector is dominated by three Low Carbon sub sectors - Alternative Fuels, Alternative Fuel & Vehicles and Building Technologies - and two Renewable Energy sub sectors - Wind and Geothermal.”

The USA accounted for 20% of all sales of green goods and services, while China accounted for 13%. The top 10 countries, including the UK, accounted for 65% of global sales, while 94% of all sales restricted to the 50 largest countries.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .