Labour Party calls for ‘rapid green investment’

The Labour Party is calling for rapid green investment to plug what it calls “the chasm between government rhetoric and reality.”

Using figures from the Office for National Statistics, Labour believes more than 75,000 green jobs were lost from the UK economy between 2014 and 2019.The figures show a loss of 33,800 direct jobs and a further 41,400 jobs in the supply chain for low carbon and renewable sectors. This includes thousands of jobs lost in solar power, onshore wind, renewable electricity and bioenergy, and a huge fall in the number of jobs in the energy efficiency sector.

On a visit to Scotland, Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, slammed the record of the Scottish National Party, after the party broke its pledge to create 130,000 green jobs by 2020. Figures show progress on green jobs going backwards in Scotland, with fewer direct jobs today than in 2014, making up just a fifth of the green jobs promised by the SNP.

Labour has called for £30bn in planned investment to be brought forward to support up to 400,000 jobs in manufacturing and low-carbon industries. The party has also put forward plans to buy, make and sell more in Britain – proposals which would create more jobs in the UK green supply chain such as wind turbine manufacturing.

Sir Keir (above) said:“Tackling the climate crisis must be at the heart of everything we do. We are at a critical moment. In less than 100 days, COP26 will be over and our chance to keep the planet’s warming below 1.5 degrees will have either been grasped or abandoned.

“The UK must rise to this moment and lead by example. That means rapid action to create good, green jobs across the country. And it means a proper strategy to buy, make and sell more in Britain, to create good, unionised jobs in clean energy and through supply chains.

“We’ve had a decade of broken promises on green jobs and climate action under the Conservatives. And we are going backwards in Scotland, too. For all the rhetoric, both parties have overseen a significant loss of green jobs.

“Nobody here in the UK can afford for this issue to be yet another example of Boris Johnson bluster. We need real action, now. It is time for a Green New Deal.”

In 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson released the government’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial revolution that he said would create up to 250,000 jobs. The plan will see the UK aim to install 600,000 heat pumps per year, which would help to create 50,000 jobs by 2030, while the country’s offshore wind sector is expected to be able to support up to 60,000 jobs.