Time for the UK government to champion us!

We are wonderful low carbon innovators in the UK but we do not compare well with others when it comes to applying funding to drive forward those innovations, commercialising them, manufacturing them and exporting them to the world.

And now, with Joe Biden’s new Inflation Reduction Act, 369 billion USD is being thrown at low carbon innovators from around the world to land their manufacturing there, not here. We stand to lose more.

The new Atlantic Declaration does at least row some way back, committing in its headlines to try and build joint supply chains for clean tech solutions, broadening ‘friendshoring’ across the two continents.

But this is not enough to stop new innovations withering on the vine if they are unsupported, or fleeing to far flung shores for some of those Biden dollars.

We need to hear government championing our low carbon technologies - but offering more than words. No, we can’t compete with the billions, but we can do everything but. We can provide ministerial level support to understand and communicate our leading technologies when overseas, helping us forge links with global customers.

Government needs to ramp up exactly this type of support and more. They can truly back the development of top-to-bottom ecosystems of support, facilitating growth, investing in the creation of managed manufacturing, building local supply chains, offering access to funding and help in exporting those technologies to the world. Then communicate it and champion it in Lancashire and beyond, regionally and nationally, and provoke those American supply chains to want to supply to us!

RedCAT, based at the offices of East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, does this. But come on government. We can compete on innovation - give us your voice!