Government invests £37m into clean transport in bid to tackle climate change

It has been announced that the government is investing £37m into cleaner transport to tackle climate change.

The £36.7m funding was announced today by business secretary Alok Sharma, who said that the money will be used to design, test and manufacture electric machines in “some of the UK’s most polluting industries”, such as planes, ships and automobiles.

In the announcement, it was reported that £30m of the funding will be used to create four new ‘Centres of Excellence’, which will host the research and development of green electric machines.

The four new centres will be in Sunderland, Nottingham, Newport and Strathclyde.

The remaining £6.7m of funding will be allocated to 14 projects which will help ensure that manufacturers have access to components needed to construct electric machines.

Business secretary Alok Sharma commented: “The electric revolution is an opportunity for our transport sectors to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels.

“The UK is leading the way in developing cleaner technologies to help us reach our target of zero emissions by 2050 and these new centres will play an important part in that.”

Transport minister Rachel Maclean added: “Funding and increased support for state-of-the-art electric manufacturing centres will help people, goods and services move across the nation, in a greener, safer and more reliable way than ever before.

“By investing in world-leading science and engineering institutions, we are creating a modern transport system, bringing communities closer together while reducing the UK’s contribution to climate change.”