Infarm, the German vertical farming company, has opened one of the largest urban farms in Europe and its first high-capacity Growing Centre in the UK in Bedford. The facility measures 10,000 sqm and can house up to 40 cloud-connected farming units, each standing 10 metres high with capacity to grow more than 500,000 plants annually—that’s a staggering 20 million plants in a single year.

That’s a lot of plants..!

The facility will also implement rainwater harvesting, using the 2.5 million litres of captured water each year to feed the plants.

As global temperatures continue to rise and soil degradation becomes an increasing issue, agricultural innovation is going to be key to improving the ways in which we sustainably grow food. Vertical farming not only uses less water, but also allows produce to be grown more locally, meaning less distance for the food to travel, and therefore less emissions.

Until now, most offshore wind farms in the UK have been built into the seabed on fixed foundations. Newly designed floating wind farms can be deployed in deeper water than conventional offshore wind farms however, where there is often higher wind and therefore greater yields. The wind turbines float on massive steel structures and tethered or anchored to the seabed.

Anewly planned floating wind farm off the coast of Wales is set to not only increase the UK’s green energy footprint, but also create 29,000 new jobs—essentially a whole new sector —feeding into the government’s targets in its energy security strategy to deliver thousands of additional jobs in green energy.

The trouble is, without additional investment in low-carbon energy it “will skew future employment away from areas the government wants to level up”, with most opportunities centred in the East, South West and South East of England. These are the findings of a new report by the thinktank Green Alliance, which found that wind and solar can support five times more secure and skilled jobs in the UK than gas generation, dispelling the myth that the transition will lead to job losses.

Any prospective PM seeking support in the Red Wall would do well to heed the report’s recommendations: expand British onshore and offshore wind; incentivise companies to invest in green skills via the tax system; and set a 2035 phase out date for gas power.