London, Jul 23 (IANS): British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a 350-million-pound (US $445.10-million) plan to cut emissions in heavy industry and drive economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The new funding will help drive "decarbonisation of heavy industry, construction, space and transport", according to a statement published on the government's official website on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The package will allocate 139 million pounds (US $176.7 million) to cut emissions in heavy industry by "supporting the transition from natural gas to clean hydrogen power and scaling up carbon capture and storage technology."

About 149 million pounds (US $189.5 million) will be available in developing innovative materials in heavy industry.

Around 26 million pounds (US $33.1 million) will be used to support advanced new building techniques in order to reduce build costs and carbon emissions in the construction industry, said the statement.

Business and Energy Secretary Alok Sharma said the funding will "reduce emissions, create green collar jobs and fuel a strong, clean economic recovery" towards achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

Earlier this month, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak unveiled his second-phase recovery measures to create tens of thousands of jobs through bringing forward work on "8.8 billion pounds (US $11.19 billion) of new infrastructure, decarbonisation and maintenance projects."