Among the stand-out statistics, the report found that there are almost 20,000 businesses that are contributing £71 billion – or 3.7% – in Gross Value Added (GVA) to the UK economy at the same time as providing 840,000 jobs. The report further highlights the rewards of decarbonisation, suggesting that environmentally sustainable economic growth, for example the development and scaling of renewable energy, is also beneficial in distributing economic activity across the UK.

Highlights also included:

• From 16 sub-sectors, the renewable energy planning database has the largest composition with around 320,000 employees and 7,500 businesses. This forms almost 40% of businesses.
• The energy sector also had the highest contribution of GVA to the UK economy, accounting for 16% of the total £71 billion GVA contribution.
• In 2021, venture funding into the net zero economy reached £710 million. This was over 10 times higher than venture investment into the oil and gas sub-industry, which saw a total of £49 million in venture investment.
• The net zero economy is highly connected to the wider UK supply chain, leading to a multiplier effect across the economy as goods and services are purchased from other industries. This supply chain contribution represents £29.5 billion in GVA, contributing 1.5% to the UK economy.

We were particularly pleased to see that the West of England was identified as one of the top 20 net zero economic hotspots, which includes our home city of Bristol. Thrive was featured as one of the net zero economy businesses operating in a range of sectors and specialisms, from energy generation to education.