The Labour Party, which won a landslide majority in the UK general election, is expected to invest millions in hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and other clean energy technologies.

Incoming Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s party secured on 4 July over 410 parliamentary seats in the 650-seat House of Commons. 

“We did it. You campaigned for it, you fought for it – and now it has arrived. Change begins now,” Starmer said in London following the victory.

In the party’s election manifesto seen by Kallanish, Labour has promised to make Britain a “clean energy superpower.”

“We will invest in carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and marine energy, and ensure we have the long-term energy storage our country needs,” the manifesto reads. “A new Energy Independence Act will establish the framework for Labour’s energy and climate policies.”

The party has pledged £500 million ($639m) to support the manufacturing of green hydrogen, in addition to a separate £1 billion to boost the deployment of carbon capture technologies. It has also promised £1.5 billion to new battery gigafactories so that Britain’s “automotive industry leads the world.”

These promised investments are part of a new £7.3 billion National Wealth Fund that seeks to make “transformative investments across every part of the country.”

Reacting to Labour’s win, automotive trade body SMMT’s chief executive Mike Hawes says: “With the global industry shifting to EV production and manufacturers tending to locate near to where their products are sold, the new government must create the conditions for mass EV adoption in Britain.”

“After so many years of fossil fuel support from the Conservatives (and their donors), we can now look forward to new environmental policies that create a green economy, new jobs, GDP and cleaner air in our towns and cities,” comments Quentin Willson, founder of campaign group FairCharge.

Jeremy Nicholson, corporate affairs officer at sustainable energy consultancy Trio, adds the new government “has a mountain to climb” if it is to deliver on the “highly ambitious” manifesto commitments.

“The most challenging of these – clean electricity by 2030 – would require doubling onshore wind, tripling solar power, and quadrupling offshore wind,” he explains. “This may not be practically achievable in such a short time, but getting close to clean power by 2030 is certainly possible with the right policies and institutional arrangements in place.”