This project seeks to strengthen the evidence base on low-carbon competitiveness and growth. The transition to a low carbon economy will require trillions of new investments. The scale of this capital deployment brings opportunities for firms. Yet today, only a fraction of the globally listed equity market is derived by the low carbon economy. How does going green affect the competitiveness of firms? Working with UK stakeholders, the research exploits firm level data to explore the drivers of private sector activity in the low-carbon economy, as well as the economic performance of green firms, including the productivity of low-carbon firms and the scope for low-carbon trade.
The aim is to provide evidence on the degree of additional policies necessary in order to leverage large scale spending from the private sector to enable the low carbon transition. Better empirical evidence – i.e. more robust and easy to generalise – is important to inform Britain’s industrial strategy, its Clean Growth Strategy and trade relationships after Brexit. Framing climate policy as a growth opportunity is also important internationally for the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
The research leader for this project is Misato Sato.