The Green Party is launching its campaign for the 2009 European elections on Monday 10th November with a series of pledges to create thousands of new green-collar jobs in new green industries.
The UK has more than 40% of Europe’s wind resources and, off our shores, marine energy from waves and tides could generate up to 20% of our electricity. The Green Party claims that, like Germany, we should already have created more than 250,000 jobs in renewable energy. However, our failure to develop this industry means we are lagging behind, with only 26,000 green energy jobs at most.
Many thousands more jobs could also be created in recycling and repairing goods and in local food production. Add an effective programme of insulation and energy efficiency and the total number of jobs would increase even further. In London alone there are almost a million homes with unfilled cavity walls.
The Green plans are part of a Green New Deal that will focus European institutions on creating a millions of new green jobs, energy security and a stronger, more resilient economy.
The six key Green New Deal pledges aimed at creating green jobs are:
– * Provide free insulation for everyone, using energy company profits to cut bills and create jobs
– * End subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear, and use the money to build world-class green energy industries
– * Train the workforce we need, with a strategic approach to providing new training places for the green industries of the future.
– * End soft touch regulation on polluting power stations and give the renewables industry the break it needs
– * Regulate big banking to stabilise the financial system, and close the loopholes which allow tax havens to operate.
– * Transform rules on procurement to help schools and hospitals buy from local producers.
The Green Party aims to double its number of MEPs in next June’s European Elections. These are held under proportional representation rules, which means that every vote counts and can help elect new Green MEPs. Voting takes place across ten regions in England and Wales (and one each in Scotland and Northern Ireland) and there are currently two Green MEPs – for the South East and London.
Jean Lambert, Green MEP for London has recently published a key report on the skills gap for green industries in Europe, and on the wider issues surrounding green work.
She said:
“Getting a Green New Deal right in Europe will depend on addressing the green skills gap. An ambitious European-level green skills and jobs programme has never been more urgent and will only be achieved with public investment and planning. Providing free insulation for all that need it will create skilled jobs for London’s workforce, can potentially save Londoners hundreds of pounds on their annual heating bills, and will save thousands of tons of carbon emissions that will help us react our climate change targets.
"However, we will not be able to deliver on these targets unless we have an appropriately skilled workforce. The greenest job of all will be making it happen, and that’s what Green MEPs are pledging they will do today.”
More about the Green MEP candidates’ pledges:
1. Provide free insulation for everyone, using energy company profits to cut bills and create jobs.
There are more than nine million homes with uninsulated cavity walls in England and Wales, leaking cash as well as creating unnecessary carbon dioxide emissions.
Green Councillors used EU funding to work in partnership with energy companies to provide free insulation for households in Kirklees, Yorkshire, in a scheme which has created more than 100 jobs and new training facilities.
Greens will work to make sure money for insulation schemes is spent efficiently, with universal free insulation installed across whole areas, as happens in Kirklees, rather than insulating one home at a time.
In 2007, the Green Party’s ‘Warm Zone’ scheme insulated as many homes in Huddersfield alone as the government’s Warm Front scheme insulated across the whole of London.
EU rules should be used to improve energy efficiency and save households money, e.g. by strengthening the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive to bring all EU countries up to the same level for incentives and rules on including renewable heating and cooling on new buildings and refurbishments.
The UK lags far behind similar EU countries for the installation of renewable energy on new buildings. This is particularly unfortunate for solar water heating, which is very effective in the UK’s climate. Austria already has solar water heating on more than 15% of its detached houses.
2. End subsidies to fossil fuels and nuclear, and use the money to build world-class green energy industries.
According the European Environment Agency, 81% of energy subsidies given by EU countries help to prop up fossil fuel industries and nuclear power. These billions could be used instead to back new, renewable energy projects which really would be ‘futureproof’ – paying for themselves in the long term, while nuclear, coal and gas would become even more of a drain on our pockets.
Just in the UK, meeting our 2020 wind targets would create up to 130,000 jobs and the opportunities in solar power are massive, with more than 100,000 potential jobs installing solar panels across the UK.
However, we are lagging behind other countries, so Greens in the European Parliament will work to make sure European institutions do more to help all countries reach their potential. In Germany there are currently 250,000 jobs in renewable energy, whereas in the UK there are 26,000 at best.
3. Train the workforce we need, with a strategic approach to providing new training places for the green industries of the future.
An ambitious European-level green skills and jobs programme has never been more urgent. Current ‘demand-led’ approaches to training, seen both in Westminster and in Brussels, fail to deliver the right skills at the right time.
The EU needs to link green work skills training to greening the economy, as part of its sustainable development and climate change strategies. Greens believe this should be at the heart of the EU’s economic thinking.
Green MEPs would push for European funds, such as the Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund, to be used to improve skills and job prospects for millions of workers in new green industries, and to promote business innovation and regeneration to give these workers places to apply their new skills.
4. End soft touch regulation on polluting power stations and give the renewables industry the break it needs.
Only the Greens in the European Parliament are pressing for the highest standards to be put in place for new power stations.
During a recent vote in the Environment Committee, the other parties voted down the Greens most ambitious proposal – which was that every new power station from 2010 on would have an emissions limit of 350g CO2/kWh.
The Green proposals would have given a huge boost to the renewables industry. Instead, what was finally agreed was a date of 2015, and a limit of 500g, letting fossil fuel industry off the hook again.
5. Regulate big banking to stabilise the financial system.
We will push for reforms of the banking system – Europe could lead the world in creating finance that serves the people and really does reduce the hidden risks that lead to boom and bust cycle that hits ordinary people hardest.
We will also use European influence to tackle the rules that allow millions to be diverted from our tax systems through the use of tax havens.
6. Transform rules on procurement to help schools and hospitals buy from local producers.
While local economies suffer from the dominance of large mega-supermarkets, Europe currently indulges in a huge ‘food swap’, with countries exchanging millions of tonnes of identical goods that could be used locally.
The UK is also far too dependent on imported food, while local producers struggle to make a living. DEFRA figures show that UK food imports increased by 38% from 1988 to 2002 and half of all vegetables and 95% of all fruit consumed in the UK now come from overseas.
The EU Directive on Procurement currently prevents public sector institutions, such as schools, hospitals and other public services, from specifying local sources as part of their tendering process for large contracts.
The Greens believe this has to stop, and Green MEPs would work to transform these rules and let our local public services choose to back our local farmers and local economies again.