UK targets green trade to help ‘de-Putinise’ global economy

Green trade can help the world end its reliance on Russian fossil fuels, UK Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan will say on Wednesday in a speech outlining Britain’s efforts to use commerce to further its push to eliminate carbon emissions.

At a speech in Bloomberg’s London headquarters, Trevelyan will say that trade in green technologies including renewable energy are crucial to boosting the British economy as well as driving down demand for oil and gas from Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. 

Britain aims to phase out imports of Russian oil by year-end and eliminate imports of Russian gas as soon as possible thereafter.

The conflict in Ukraine has “reminded the globe that we must de-Putinise the world’s economy,” Trevelyan will say, according to a statement from the Department for International Trade. “These past months have highlighted the need to accelerate our journey as a global community away from hydrocarbons.”

The UK seeks to “reap the rewards of global green growth” by seizing a chunk of a global market for low-carbon exports that’s projected to reach almost 2 trillion pounds ($2.5 trillion) a year by 2030, according to Trevelyan’s remarks. 

To that end, the minister is announcing two loan guarantees on Wednesday to help British exporters. The first, totaling 138 million pounds, will go to Megger Group Ltd., which makes electric testing equipment, to help the manufacturer build a factory and boost sales abroad. A second, 50 million-pound guarantee will go to the builder Mace Group Ltd. to to help develop environment-friendly infrastructure projects.