Net zero economy reaches £105bn

The UK’s net zero economy generated around £105bn in gross value added last year and supported 1.1 million jobs across the wider economy, according to new analysis commissioned by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.

The report, produced with analysis from CBI Economics and The Data City, found that £36.7bn of that value and 308,000 jobs were directly attributable to net zero companies. A further £51.2bn was generated through supply chains, with £16.8bn attributed to induced economic activity.

Those figures position the net zero economy as a substantial part of the UK’s industrial base rather than a narrow environmental category. The report says every £1 in value generated directly by the net zero economy creates a further £1.85 in the wider economy, reflecting connections into manufacturing, construction, professional services, finance, transport, and energy infrastructure.

Jobs supported by net zero businesses were also found to be significantly more productive than the national average. The report says they generated £119,300 in economic value per full-time job, around 48% above the UK average, and were associated with average wages of £43,142, 11% higher than the national average.

The sector is heavily SME-led. The report identifies 23,500 active companies in the UK net zero economy, with more than 96% classified as small or medium-sized businesses. It also points to 22,700 small businesses employing fewer than 50 people, spread across regions and nations rather than concentrated solely in London and the South East.

Six “billion-pound” economic hotspots are identified across the UK, including the Scottish Central Belt, West and North Yorkshire, and North Wales and Cheshire. Yorkshire and the Humber leads in England for net zero GVA as a share of local GVA at 4.4%, with the region’s net zero economy supporting more than 79,000 jobs.

Louise Hellem, CBI chief economist, said the report showed that clean power and decarbonisation are “already a significant and growing part of the UK’s industrial base”.

The direction of travel is increasingly visible in corporate systems as well as infrastructure. Carbon measurement, auditability, and action planning are moving into everyday management workflows, with platforms such as SGS’s Sami carbon management platform reflecting the shift from broad emissions commitments towards structured reporting and operational delivery.

The new figures give that operational shift a wider economic frame. Sustainability remains a compliance and reporting challenge in many organisations, but the same activity is now linked to industrial growth, energy security, supply-chain resilience, and export competitiveness. The report’s emphasis on productivity and wage premiums suggests that net zero activity is increasingly tied to high-value work rather than only to targets and disclosure.

The investment pipeline is substantial. The report says the UK’s renewable energy pipeline represents a £455bn investment opportunity across 262GW of capacity, with around two-thirds already in active development or under construction. Scale alone, however, will not guarantee delivery. Grid constraints, planning delays, financing conditions, skills shortages, and supply-chain capacity will determine how much of that pipeline turns into completed projects.

Energy security has become a sharper commercial consideration as conflict and disruption affect shipping and energy markets. A stronger domestic clean energy and infrastructure base would not remove all exposure to global shocks, but it would change the balance of risk for energy-intensive industries, manufacturers, and logistics-dependent businesses.

The regional findings are particularly notable. Net zero investment is often discussed nationally, although the commercial activity frequently materialises locally: ports enabling offshore wind, manufacturing clusters producing components, construction companies adopting low-carbon materials, and service businesses supporting measurement, financing, compliance, and project delivery. The spread of small companies across the net zero economy shows the sector is not dependent only on a small group of large energy companies.

Policy stability remains the central condition. The report says realising the opportunity depends on economic conditions that enable sustained investment and on stable policy that allows delivery at scale. That requirement is becoming more pressing as the UK attempts to align industrial strategy, energy policy, planning reform, and regional growth.

The net zero economy is now large enough to be part of the UK’s productivity debate. The commercial base is established, the employment footprint is significant, and the investment pipeline is deep. Delivery will depend on whether the UK can turn those assets into durable competitive advantage while other economies race to attract clean industrial capital.