60,000 green jobs under threat from Coalition cuts

Green Politics

A key fund directed at upgrading British ports for offshore wind is to be axed. It could lead to loss of around 60,000 green jobs at 3 major wind turbine factories.

The Guardian reports this morning that a key fund directed at upgrading British ports to accommodate for an offshore wind boom is to be axed.

If their report is correct, this could lead to the loss of around 60,000 green jobs at three major wind turbine factories planned by industry.

Siemens, General Electric and Mitsubishi have all said over the last year that their proposed factories were contingent on this key funding. For example, back in July the Financial Times reported that:

Peter Loscher, chief executive of Siemens, told the Financial Times that a proposed £60m overhaul of some ports, intended to make them ready for the heavy duty wind turbines under development, was vital if the company was to proceed with building an £80m manufacturing facility that could create hundreds of “green jobs”.

“This is something that is definitely needed,” he said. “We are hopeful that it will go ahead.”

In February, Nick Clegg spoke exclusively to Left Foot Forward saying that the Lib Dems would invest £400m upgrading shipyards to make them suitable for offshore wind infrastructure.

Clegg told us:

“We need to remove the blockages – lack of space, access to facilities and transport to off-shore sites… Refurbishing seven of the ports will be a shot in the arm to increasing industry and manufacturing that will benefits regions like the North East.”

A Yougov poll last month showed that three-quarters of Lib Dem members wanted clean energy funds like this one either protected or increased in the CSR, and in the last fortnight Chris Huhne re-committed the government to hugely increasing the share of UK energy from renewable sources.

Professor Tom Burke, an influential energy expert who advises government and the private sector on low-carbon business, yesterday warned that the Treasury is attempting to scale back or kill the government’s proposed Green Investment Bank. In an article for The Guardian, Burke outlined four tests of the bank’s credibility:

– The bank will have a mandate wide enough to finance any measure that will reduce carbon emissions;

– It will be established by statute – this matters a lot as it guarantees its independence of government;

– It will have a full set of powers including the ability to issue green bonds;

– Its subscribed capital will begin at £2bn.

Today’s reported cut follows significant other cuts to clean energy budgets.

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37 Responses to “60,000 green jobs under threat from Coalition cuts”

  1. Mike Guillaume

    So much for the -or some of the possible steps to- “greening of economy” (or green economy, tout court), one of the key points in Lib Dems’ economic agenda. If the report is correct, that’s another promise vanishing in.. the air.
    Picking up on Nick Clegg’s words in Left Foot Forward I wrote a piece for Lib Dem Voice on February 15 this year (you can still read it at http://www.libdemvoice.org/opinion-from-shipyards-to-wind-turbines-britain-needs-bets-17942.html).
    To cut it short, I was, among others, urging the UK and its government to bet on BETS (i.e. business, environmental, technology and social enterprises and economy) to make steps towards a real economic reinvention (read http://www.mikeconomics.net/downloads/downloads/Needed%20Britain%20economic%20reinvention.pdf). What manufacturing industries are left in Britain now? Why missing opportunities to rebuild some, instead of chasing the City gamblers?
    The more I look at it and the more I regard the Lib Con bet ill-founded.
    The cut-spending obession is one example. This is another evidence.

  2. Chris

    @mousey

    LOL, having spent most of your adult life in institutions I wouldn’t expect you to know very much about girls but really girlfriend and partner are rather different things. No 17 year old goes around introducing his bird as his “partner” ffs.

    “Chris – As an animal lover I quite agree but what does that have to do with Climate Change and Joss Gasrman, the Ed Miliband fanboy?”

    For fucksake can’t you read? I’ll say it again for the thickie at the back, whose too busy talking about his 17 yo “partner” to the other patients, there is a lot more to environmentalism than climate change. This government can’t claim to be green simply because it stopped runway 3 but being a deranged LibDem hack that is all you talk about, what about the badgers? Industrial dairies? Expansion of regional airports?

    The next drug round is at 18:00, mouse, make sure you swallow the pills this time; they’re not suppositories.

  3. John Ruddy

    So much for "Greenest Government Ever" RT @leftfootfwd: 60,000 green jobs under threat from Coalition cuts http://bit.ly/a3OLgN

  4. New Internationalist

    RT @jossgarman: 60,000 green jobs under threat – just blogged http://bit.ly/a3OLgN

  5. geoff1

    @chris

    that’s who’s not whose.

    they not do spelling at school these days?

Comments are closed.