The Humber 2030 Vision has been laid before parliament.
A Westminster launch of the prospectus of decarbonisation projects that could represent a £15 billion investment on the Energy Estuary has been held. It followed the unveiling at the Waterline Summit, and came immediately ahead of COP 27, the United Nations’ climate change conference, opening.
CBI Director General Tony Danker endorsed it, with the Humber chosen as a first cluster demonstrator by the business organisation, ahead of Shadow Energy Secretary Ed Miliband noting it was a “deeply impressive” piece of work.
Read more: Waterline Summit 'creates shared vision' for Humber's evolution to climate change challenge leader
Chair of the Humber Energy Board, Richard Gwilliam, introduced it at the House of Lords. He convenes the organisation that unites the public and private sectors on both banks of the Humber to drive decarbonisation.
Unveiling it and making it available to major national stakeholders, he said: “I’m proud to have played a leading role in bringing together all of the various consortia that have contributed so effectively to the creation of a hugely exciting and compelling vision for the future of the Humber region. A future where the £15bn of private sector investment in decarbonisation projects set out in the document delivers clean growth and green jobs for years to come.
“When the late Her Majesty the Queen opened the iconic Humber Bridge - which graces the front of our brochure - in 1981, she congratulated everyone involved and said that ‘by their boldness, resolution, ingenuity and imagination they have created a material expression of confidence in the future’. I think those sentiments are equally applicable to the enormity of our vision for the future of the region.
“At the heart of that vision is of course a network of pipelines that will run from Drax in the west to Keadby, to Scunthorpe to Immingham before crossing the estuary to Hull. These pipelines will take captured carbon dioxide away for permanent storage under the North Sea and bring hydrogen to existing industry to promote low carbon fuel switching.
“And while those pipelines will be buried, running anonymously through the region they can be as important, as iconic, as transformative as the Humber Bridge before. The Humber is already a nationally important industrial economy but the opportunity presented before everyone today is of international significance, endorsed by the World Economic Forum. When the Humber Bridge opened it was of course the largest single span bridge in the world. The Humber 2030 Vision can be equally record breaking and create a world leading model that delivers jobs and growth through decarbonisation.”
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