Just the job for green transition

Climate groups are calling for £1.9 billion a year to support offshore oil and gas workers and communities across Britain through the shift to renewable energy.

More than 65 organisations have written to chancellor Rachel Reeves, calling for her to ring-fence funding until 2030 to support the transition to clean energy jobs, in a move endorsed by leading trade unions.

They want to see the government fund a UK-wide industrial strategy prioritising public investment in domestic renewables manufacturing and skills and expanding publicly-owned energy production.

Superpower

The climate organisations, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Extinction Rebellion, Platform, Uplift and Oil Change International, are urging the government to spend £1.1 billion a year to develop permanent, local jobs in public and community-owned wind manufacturing.

They also want to see £440 million more a year for port upgrades to ease bottlenecks in supply chains for green energy, including the Government taking equity stakes in them as critical national infrastructure.

And there should be £355 million per year to develop a dedicated training fund for offshore oil and gas workers, to be matched by the industry through a training levy on employers, to help them retrain.

The letter has been backed by the biggest union representing offshore oil and gas workers, Unite, as well as the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union (RMT) , the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS), the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) and Moray and Aberdeen’s Trades Union Councils.

The new government has said it wants to make the UK a clean energy superpower as part of its mission to stimulate growth and jobs.

Job

It has set a target to reach clean power by 2030, is setting up a publicly-owned clean energy company, GB Energy, and has signalled there will be no new oil and gas licences issued.

However, concerns have been raised about job losses in fossil fuel sectors, and how those working in polluting industries will be fairly supported to find new jobs in clean energy sectors.

The letter to the chancellor, coming ahead of the autumn Budget, warns that the growth in offshore wind has not delivered sufficient jobs growth as manufacturing work is done abroad, and the training regime is not fit for purpose.

And it accuses successive governments of leaving the energy transition to market and industry bosses, with shareholder profits prioritised over “affordable energy, adequate public investment and job creation”.

Justice

It says: “The ongoing closures of Grangemouth Oil Refinery and Port Talbot steelworks without plans to transition workers into secure green energy or green steel jobs are a damning indictment of this failed approach.”

The letter was being handed to the Treasury at a rally on Wednesday.

Mel Evans, campaigner at Greenpeace, said: “For too long, industry bosses have pocketed record profits while oil and gas workers bear the brunt of the decline of North Sea oil and gas.

“Offshore workers have risked life and limb and suffered long stints away from their families to keep this country moving and it’s time the Government repaid their sacrifices with an industrial strategy that puts worker justice at its heart.”

Trade unions

Joe Rollin, senior organiser at Unite the Union, said: “Creating sustainable green jobs must be at the heart of the UK’s renewable energy strategy.

“We can’t allow a situation where North Sea workers face a cliff edge, with no skilled green jobs to go to while the UK becomes more reliant on importing fossil fuels.

“Today unions, workers and climate groups are uniting behind the urgent need for a transition plan for oil and gas workers and public funding to back it up. The Chancellor must now listen.”

A government spokesperson said: “The oil and gas industry will play an important role for decades to come and we will work with the sector to ensure a fair, orderly and prosperous transition.

“Much of the transferable expertise from offshore energies such as oil and gas will be crucial for the transition to net zero, and through the Office for Clean Energy Jobs we will work with trade unions, experts and industry to support British workers and provide the skills necessary for the jobs of the future.”

This Author

Emily Beament is the PA environment correspondent.