UNIONS and climate activists have joined forces to call for £1.9 billion to deliver an energy transition that “puts worker justice at its heart.”
Campaigners rallied outside the Treasury in London today before delivering a letter calling on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to ring-fence funding until 2030, to support the transition to clean energy jobs.
The letter – signed by 65 organisations, ranging from Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth to Unite, RMT, the STUC and Moray and Aberdeen trades councils – calls for a UK-wide industrial strategy backed by public investment in skills, domestic renewables manufacturing and expanding publicly owned energy production.
Campaigners argue £1.1bn a year should be ploughed into developing permanent, local jobs in public and community-owned wind manufacturing, with a further £440 million a year going into ports, taking equity stakes to deliver the investment needed to ease supply chain bottlenecks.
For 200,000 workers – 90,000 in Scotland – whose livelihoods rely on oil and gas, campaigners say a further £355m a year should be invested by government in retraining, matched by employers through an industry-wide levy.
Greenpeace’s Mel Evans said: “Bosses have pocketed record profits while oil and gas workers bear the brunt of the decline.
“It’s time the government repaid their sacrifices with an industrial strategy that puts worker justice at its heart.”
Unite senior organiser Joe Rollin said: “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.”
STUC general secretary Roz Foyer added: “A market-led approach to net zero isn’t working – for people or planet.
“In the last month, we’ve seen the announcement that the Grangemouth Refinery is to close and be replaced by an import-export terminal, and the announcement of Harland and Wolff going into administration.
“Instead of investment to future-proof our industries, once again corporate mismanagement and a market-led approach to energy has failed workers and communities.
“Trade unions and environmental groups are united in demanding an industrial strategy based on public investment in domestic manufacturing and publicly owned energy production.
“The UK government should pay heed.”
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.
“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.”
