The announcement of the Carbon Plan and Green Deal apprenticeships has been made during a visit by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne to B&Q's flagship energy saving store in Sutton.
The Carbon Plan sets out the timescale in order for the Government to live up to its green ambitions. It also details how to tackle tough domestic carbon targets and encourage greater action internationally. The Government has also announced that at least 1,000 'Green Deal' apprentices aged 16 and over could receive Government funding towards their training. The apprenticeships have received backing from a number of companies including B&Q, Carillion, E.ON, British Gas and InstaGroup.

Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg met with industry apprentices, and SummitSkills' head of environmental technologies Nigel Hollet at the event in Sutton, as well as representatives from ConstructionSkills and Asset Skills as part of the focus on jobs and economic opportunities of the low carbon economy.

The visit highlighted the importance of Green Deal apprenticeships and gave the Deputy Prime Minister the opportunity to talk directly to apprentices and the sector skills councils.

The Carbon Plan is published in draft today here: http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/lc_uk/carbon_plan/carbon_plan.aspx with the Government inviting the public and organisations to give their views on the contents. A final version will be published in the Autumn and quarterly updates on progress will be published on the Number 10 website http://www.number10.gov.uk.