Around £84 billion in turnover and 447,500 jobs were generated by the low carbon and renewable energy (LCRE) economy in 2014.

A significant proportion of this comes from indirect activity, which is the knock-on effect of renewable investments and projects on the wider economy, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Its latest report states indirect activity accounted for 44.6% of LCRE turnover (£37.2 billion) and 46.7% of the jobs (209,000).

The LCRE economy was worth a total of £46.2 billion in 2014.

The largest contributor was the energy efficiency sector, generating £37.8 billion in turnover across the UK, of which £15.9 billion was indirect. It also created 280,500 jobs.

It accounted for 45.3% of turnover and 62.7% of employment in the LCRE economy, due to the main activities of businesses in the energy efficiency market often being labour intensive.

The second-largest group was low carbon electricity, which generated £24.2 billion in turnover and 86,000 jobs across the UK. Indirect activity accounted for £11.7 billion turnover and 45,500 of jobs.

It accounted for 29% of total turnover and 19.2% of total employment generated by the LCRE economy.