MP Chris McDonald hails clean energy as economic opportunity of the century at IChemE debate

CLEAN energy will provide the UK with the economic opportunity of the century, according to MP Chris McDonald, speaking at a recent energy transition debate hosted by IChemE’s Oil, Gas, and Energy Transition Special Interest Group.

Hosted at University College London, the event drew industry professionals and students for a wide-ranging discussion on how UK industry can remain competitive during the energy transition.

McDonald, an IChemE Fellow, told the audience: “Chemical engineers quite often rise to the top of companies and end up taking management positions. And this is because we have an advantage in dealing with problems, particularly dynamic process optimisation problems, so we feel comfortable with lots of variables and then optimising them to a particular place.”

McDonald stressed the importance of the UK’s Industrial Strategy for economic growth, arguing that sustainability and competitiveness are not mutually exclusive.“The green economy is growing three times faster than the non-green economy and we saw £2trn (US$2.7trn) invested in clean energy last year, so that’s twice as much as was invested in fossil fuels,” he said. “It’s the economic opportunity not only of a generation or even of a lifetime, but it’s also possibly the economic opportunity of more than a century. It’s a new Industrial Revolution.”

The strategy highlights eight growth sectors for investment over the next decade, including advanced manufacturing, defence and clean energy. More than £30bn a year is expected to be invested in clean energy by 2035. Some speakers questioned whether the strategy adequately supports the UK’s foundational industries, including refining and chemicals. IChemE president Raffaella Ocone asked how the government would support foundational industries. She said: “When people think about materials, they tend to jump to steel, but what about the materials that come from petrochemicals?”

Nick Bone, who spent 32 years at ExxonMobil and was managing director of its Fawley refinery and chemicals site, said UK refining has been hit hard by high energy and supply chain costs: “We’re not competing with Europe, as the minister said, we’re competing with the globe, and year on year, the cost of energy gets higher and the cost of employing people gets higher, so our margins get squeezed.Making money in our industry is incredibly hard, whether you’re making chemicals or whether you’re refining crude oil.”

Speakers agreed that skills shortages pose a major risk to industrial growth. McDonald said: “We’ve identified a job growth opportunity of 800,000 jobs in the UK and that’s a great opportunity for the chemical engineers in this room. But that investment from industry can’t be realised without access to highly skilled workers.”

The government is investing in training for low-carbon technologies, including £20m to support North Sea workers transitioning to new sectors. McDonald urged engineering students to enter the sector, warning that skills shortages could push investment overseas.
He said: “We’ll lose that investment in the UK if we don’t have access to skills.”