The director of the CBI’s trailblazing new Humber cluster believes decarbonisation could see the Energy Estuary become a magnet for ‘greenshoring’ manufacturing to the UK.
Jonathan Oxley is at the helm of the pioneering approach from the leading national business organisation, entirely focused on the Net Zero transition. Launched last year, and with an office now established on Bridgehead North, at the heart of the region, he has set out an early agenda for 2023.
He told how realising the tremendous ambition could bring incredible benefits as he explained the core role, which came with a backdrop of calls for urgency in policy activity form a growing chorus. With lobbying - championing the business cause - at the CBI’s heart, the figurehead was clear on that need too.
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Mr Oxley said: “We bring a neutral collaborative convening power to bring all the strands together and form a much stronger message for the Humber.
“This is about trying to provide a more compelling narrative and common voice. The statistics show that the Humber is the largest industrial cluster, with 6 per cent of the UK’s CO2 emissions. If we want to get to Net Zero, the only way we will do it is by tackling it here.
“A lot of hard work has been done, we have a lot of new investment, we have buy-in from a great number of stakeholders in the region, we just need the green signal and we’re off.
“That’s a hugely powerful message, and it is not just about decarbonisation, not just about Net Zero, it is also about protecting existing jobs and opportunities, huge opportunities for growth. People are going to see it as the place to be, with X, Y and Z that is required for a low carbon economy in place. That’s where the growth potential is.”
The overarching plan creates a carbon capture and hydrogen supply network, linking industrial sites with sub-North Sea storage and new production, cleaning up legacy plants by retrofitting new technology and fuel switching, while attracting new ‘plug and play’ processes dependent on such resources. A total of 18 key projects were united in the £15 billion Humber 2030 Vision the CBI put its name to alongside Humber Energy Board, Humber Industrial Cluster Plan, the Catch-led entity he was previously part of, and Marketing Humber.
Stating how he couldn’t imagine it being received any better having been launched at The Waterline Summit in October followed by a Westminster presentation - and with European plans to follow - Mr Oxley reflected on various international delegations and the words of the World Economic Forum that introduced it. “There is world attention,” he said. “Some organisations are looking for advice and another angle is selling services and potentially exporting products.
“We’ve also got the opportunity to manufacture in a good way. There is an opportunity that instead of reshoring we can greenshore. All the manufacturing we have offshored, we now have the chance to repatriate with the attraction of doing it greener.”
Three key pillars of work have been identified for the year ahead.
“I want to do more on the vision, more engagement, messaging with MPs and decision-makers,” Mr Oxley said. “We are seeing real valuable buy-in, a highest common denominator approach, as the infrastructure is hugely important. These pipelines for hydrogen and captured carbon transportation are absolutely pivotal.
“A second pillar is finance. How we make sure those second tier suppliers can access funds, how they can obtain transformational finance to take them to the place they need to be with capability to deliver. It is ensuring they can go and have a discussion, with confidence, with business banks.
“We want to maximise the opportunities for businesses and people in the region so they know how to access sources of finance, so they can transition themselves to set up to have 200 welders, 11 fitters or instrument or electrical technicians. Most of these skills are the same sort of jobs and skills we have in the region. It is maximising those opportunities for the region. We won’t get every job, it won’t just be a Humber supply chain, the prize is so big we could never meet it.”
Turning to the policy framework, with on-patch organisations leading lights in the cluster sequencing model, Mr Oxley addressed the third pillar. He said: “The important thing is that we have delivered on our commitments. There is great ambition and it is a great cluster to sanction here. We need that. The US has moved on with the Inflation Reduction Act, which has provided real clear policy levers, and the EU is getting together around REpower. It is vital we retain the attention of the world, retain real first mover status, and to do so we have got to carry on pushing - and where better than the Humber?
“One of the things I find really refreshing is that there are companies out there that say they tried competing in one round, didn’t get through, but they are still participating, still working, putting in their own money and saying ‘there is still something in this, we’ll carry on with the project anyway’. Private money is there, private sector ambition is there, and from the CBI’s perspective it is brilliant. It is such an amazing and exciting proposition around the Humber.”
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