Labour leader Keir Starmer has called for rapid action to create new green employment after new figures reveal that more than 75,000 green jobs were lost from the UK economy in five years.
There was a reduction of 33,800 direct jobs and 41,400 jobs in the supply chain for low carbon and renewable sectors between 2014 and 2019, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics cited by Labour.
These were said to include thousands of positions lost in solar power, onshore wind, renewable electricity and bioenergy, as well as a significant fall in the number of jobs in the energy efficiency sector.
“We’ve had a decade of broken promises on green jobs,” Starmer said, warning that the country is at a “critical moment,” as Glasgow will host the COP26 climate summit in three months. “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.”
Despite recent research suggesting Scotland’s green energy sector currently supports 22,660 jobs, Labour said figures show progress on green jobs is “going backwards” in the country, with fewer direct positions today than in 2014.
Last year, 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.
In addition to those two areas, the plan covers carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and electric vehicles, and brings forward the ban on internal combustion engine vehicles to 2030.
A pipeline of 540 green energy projects could see the UK create more than 430,000 clean jobs, largely mitigating job losses caused by COVID-19, according to a new report.
