|
Best of Both Worlds Green policies for job-creation AND sustainability "We can confidently assert that Green
policies could create an additional one million UK jobs during the first ten
years of a Green industrial revolution." - Contents - Green
policies could create a million UK jobs Jobs
and sustainability Less traffic, less pollution -
better public transport, more jobs Sustainable energy, less pollution,
more jobs Less pollution, healthier food,
more jobs, stronger rural economies Less pollution, safer environment,
more jobs 5. Greening
Industry Generally Protect the environment, create
jobs The viable option for voters in
June 2001 Executive
summary Green policies could create a million UK jobs S1 The present economic system is not only unsustainable - it also
contains a built-in job-destruction dynamic. Excessive emphasis on
competition means businesses are constantly striving to cut costs - one of
which is the bill for jobs. Technology is thus being used to cut costs and
increase company profits, rather than for the general good of society. S2 The creation of meaningful employment in benign industries is an
essential part of the Green vision. This report indicates how jobs can be
created in a way that also brings benefits for health and ecology. S3 On Transport the report shows how Europe has lost 500,000 rail jobs in
20 years due to unsustainable policies favouring road haulage and
road-building - and how spending on public transport creates more jobs than
spending on roads. S4 On Energy the report shows how 30,000 UK jobs in wind energy await
creation over 10 years; how replacing conventional energy sources with wind
power could TREBLE employment in the energy sector; how the less ecologically
benign sectors of the energy industry sustain fewer jobs than the greener
sectors, per unit of power produced; and how the UK's major businesses could
cut energy costs by up to £1bn a year. S5 On Agriculture, the report shows how unsustainable farming practices
have cut farming jobs by two-thirds in 50 years - while devastating the
environment. And how organic food production employs 20-30% more people per
hectare than chemical- and mechanical-intensive farming. And how sustainable
agricultural practices could quickly create 40,000 new jobs in the UK. S6 On the related themes of Repair, Reuse, Recycling and Waste-Management,
the report shows how industries associated with reuse and repair are known to
sustain more jobs than their new-manufacture equivalent; how banning
throwaway containers for beer and fizzy drinks would create up to 4,000 UK
jobs; how cutting car manufacture could be combined with creating more jobs
in the automotive industry; how recycling offers to create 14,000 extra jobs
in London alone; and how greener forms of waste management sustain far more
jobs per quantity of waste than either landfill or incineration - while also
having environmental and health benefits. Introduction Jobs and sustainability I1 The Green Party seeks a holistic approach to politics, in which all
policy areas are integrated rather than played off against one another. This
report challenges the myth that society must choose between health and
environmental protection on the one hand, and the economic benefits of
job-creation on the other. I2 The Green Party believes that the sensible application of modern
technology should ultimately allow society the freedom to do less work - but
there is still clearly a lot of work to do in the development of a socially
just and ecologically sustainable society. I3 We cannot keep unsustainable and unhealthy industries going just for
the sake of 'jobs'. On the other hand, we don't need to suffer the kind of
deprivation which has met the decline of successive industries during this
century. Green policy seeks to steer the economy towards an improvement of
quality of life for society as a whole, meaningful paid employment for those
who seek it, and a fairer share of both the wealth and the work. This report
focuses on the Green job-creation part of the equation. I4 There are demonstrably Green policy areas with major job-increase
potential. There are ecologically destructive sectors with relatively low
job-sustaining performance. This report highlights some areas where pursuit
of ecologically sustainable economics, including investment in Green
'sunrise' sectors, would have clear job-creation benefits. I5 Each section of this report gives brief statements of Green Party
policy. 1. Greening
Transport Less traffic, less pollution - better public transport, more jobs 1.1 The EU's railways have lost 500,000 jobs in 20 years (European
Information Service). The first 10 years of Margaret Thatcher's government
saw 70,000 railway jobs disappear in the UK (Road to the Future,
Green Party 1991, p3.) 1.2 The growth of road haulage has clearly paralleled a decline in other
more sustainable freight modes. And the rise of the 'car economy' has
paralleled the decline of public transport. Combined, they have been one of
the greatest causes of ecological degradation this century. Transport
pollution directly and indirectly accounts for about half of global warming
and is a major cause of premature death and of a variety of illnesses. 1.3 A comprehensive policy for a sustainable transport system is found in
the Green Party's Manifesto for a Sustainable Society. This report
indicates simply that the development of a sustainable transport sector is
compatible with a healthy employment policy. 1.4 A recent study by the German Road League found that spending on public
transport would yield far more job-years than spending on roads. An outlay of
DM100 million would yield: 1,201-1,630 person-years of work if spent on roads 1,880 person-years of work if spent on rail construction 1,992 person-years of work if spent on local public transport such as
light rail construction 1.5 These figures are supported by a Cambridge Econometrics study in 1992
which showed that jobs in road-building projects cost far more to sustain
that jobs in other, more sustainable sectors, including major public
transport projects.
(Source: Sunday Times 25.10.92.) 1.6 Friends of the Earth UK have produced a study entitled Less
Traffic, More Jobs exploring this issue in depth and demonstrating
conclusively that Green policies are advantageous in economic as well as
ecological terms. 1.7 Further evidence along these lines is found in North West Green
Party's report about the unsustainable and resource-intensive air transport
industry, Pigs Might Fly: A Green economic critique of Manchester
airport's expansion. This report argues comprehensively that aviation,
being so resource-intensive, spends a high proportion of its turnover on
burning oil and importing expensive technology, and a relatively low
proportion on employing people. Moreover the industry represents a net drain
on the UK balance of payments, in the order of £4bn a year. 1.8 Clearly it is in society's interests for job-creation as well as health
and ecological reasons to switch resources from road haulage and
car-dominated transport to the less resource-intensive modes. Policy initiatives 1. Major switch away from road-building to the development of an
ecologically sustainable transport network emphasising: a. Public transport. b. Less fuel-intensive transport modes. c. Localisation of economies, to minimise routine transportation. 2. Promotion of a fuel policy to achieve this, combined with policies for economic
well-being (see Greening Industry Generally below). 2. Greening
Energy Sustainable energy, less pollution, more jobs 2.1 It is now widely recognised that the burning of fossil fuels has
brought the world to the brink of global ecological catastrophe. A major
factor is domestic and industrial energy demand. There is now the technology
and the experience to reduce this demand and meet society's requirements in a
manner that reduces ecological degradation, promotes better health, cuts both
people's fuel bills and industry's energy costs, and creates more jobs than
unsustainable energy can. 2.2 The European Commission has calculated that doubling the amount of
renewables in Europe would create 500,000 to 900,000 new jobs (see New
Power for Britain, Greenpeace UK; Positive News, Winter 1998). 2.3 A study by Environmental Resources Ltd for the Association for the
Conservation of Energy found that a 10-year programme to cut domestic energy
use would create 500,000 person-years of work (see Working Futures p54.) 2.4 Studies by the American Wind Energy Association suggest that replacing
conventional energy sources with wind power could increase employment in the
energy sector by 198-396% (see Working Futures p59). 2.5 A study by Friends of the Earth UK argued that energy efficiency
investments in the UK could create an additional 81,000 direct and indirect
jobs (Working Futures p63.) 2.6 A recent report by Sustainable Development Ltd for Greenpeace UK shows
that providing just 10% of UK electricity from offshore wind would generate
30,000 new jobs. (Offshore Wind, Onshore Jobs: A new world class British
energy industry for the millennium.) 2.7 The less ecologically benign sectors of the energy industry sustain
fewer jobs than the greener sectors, per unit of power produced. Nuclear
power - which produces the ultimate form of pollution and is implicated in
growing rates of cancer - sustains a little over one-sixth of the jobs
sustained by wind energy for a given output of power. Wind energy is four
times better than coal energy for sustaining jobs. (See Working Futures p61.) 2.8 Even closing down the nuclear power industry completely will not mean
destroying all jobs in the industry. Such is the nature of nuclear waste,
that this industry will continue to sustain jobs in large numbers for many
thousands of years after it has ceased producing electricity. Decommissioning
nuclear power stations is set to become a growth industry in its own right.
Companies like BNFL could seize this opportunity and begin exporting decommissioning
expertise and technology to other countries. 2.9 Energy saving policies, of course, also help cut business costs, which
in turn helps protect jobs. UK food processors Heinz recently installed a
combined heat and power (CHP) station for one of their plants, which they
estimated would save almost £500,000 a year and cut their CO2 emissions by
30,000 tonnes a year. The manufacturers estimated that the UK's CHP industry
could save British industry £1 billion a year in energy costs and cut 15 million
tonnes of CO2 emissions a year. (Source: Heinz.) Policy initiatives 1. Close down the nuclear power industry. Replace its jobs
with a larger number in the sustainable energy production sector, as well as
preserving those of the nuclear decommissioning and waste management sector. 2. Comprehensive programme of demand-side management (DSM) to cut people's
fuel bills and reduce demand for energy. 3. Incentives to industry to reduce its energy use (including rising fuel
taxes). 4. Rapid development of non-nuclear renewables to meet Europe's energy
needs. 3. Greening
Agriculture Less pollution, healthier food, more jobs, stronger rural
economies 3.1 Between 1945 and 1992, the total number of jobs on English farms fell
from 478,000 to 135,000. (MAFF census figures, in Working Futures
p73). This has had a knock-on effect in job-destruction as rural populations
have fallen and local services been closed down. The same process has
destroyed 95% of our wildflower meadows, 30-50% of our ancient woodlands,
50-60% of lowland heathland, 140,000 miles of hedgerows and over half our
lowland fens, valley and basin mires (Working Futures p74) - while
pollution associated with food transport has drastically increased, and the
UK still imports half of its food! 3.2 Green policies tackle this dire situation in a comprehensive way -
with powerful implications for job-creation. 3.3 Organic food production employs 20-30% more people per hectare than
chemical- and mechanical-intensive farming. German and Swedish experience suggests
that Britain could be '10% organic' within 10 years, and that this would
create 12,000-18,000 more jobs. A more determined effort achieving a 25%
target would create 30,000-45,000 additional jobs. (See Working Futures
pp75-76.) The benefits to rural communities would be very significant. 3.4 Greener use of woodlands would also sustain more jobs. Managing
semi-natural woodland creates three times as many jobs as introducing conifer
plantations (see Working Futures p77). Replacing UK imports of tropical
hardwoods with home-grown timber - creating up to 590,000 hectares of
broad-leaved woodland - would create 3,300-4,400 jobs (Working Futures p77),
be a major carbon sink, and create tremendous wildlife benefits - and be a
major step towards the stabilising of Britain's economy through localisation
(production for local need as locally as possible, which in turn reduces
transport and pollution impacts). 3.5 A report by the Sustainable Agriculture, Food & Environment
Alliance (Vicky Hird, 1997) estimates that sustainable agricultural practices
could create 40,000 new jobs in the UK. 3.6 Reducing 'food miles' - the distance which food had travelled, which
is facilitated by cheap fuel - would strengthen local production for local
need, helping to stabilise markets, and allowing UK farmers to meet a growing
demand for locally-grown produce. Cheap fuel also facilitates the economies
of scale which destroy jobs. Policy initiatives 1. Promote the complete reform of the Common Agricultural Policy to
release funds for sustainable food production, including £500m for
agri-environment schemes by 2005. 2. An organic Targets Act to ensure 30% of UK food is organic by 2010, and
pesticide use is cut by 50% by 2005. 3. Development of the UK timber industry to meet the growing timber needs
of a sustainable society, while eventually replacing timber imports. 3. Fuel policies to reduce 'food miles'. 4. Greening
Waste Management Less pollution, safer environment, more jobs 4.1 The development of a 'throwaway' society has generated enormous
problems - and costs - related to handling colossal quantities of waste (one
of the externalised or hidden costs of the industries concerned, which are
passed indirectly to the consumer). At the same time it has destroyed jobs
which once existed in industries associated with reuse and repair. Moreover,
the latter are known to sustain more jobs than the new-manufacture
equivalent. 4.2 Banning throwaway containers for beer and fizzy drinks in the UK would
create up to 4,000 new jobs within 3 years (Working Futures p66). 4.3 Reconditioning a 10-year-old car to make it last another 10 years
leads to an energy saving of 42% but a 56% increase in labour-time compared
to manufacturing a new car (Working Futures p66). This implies that
the number of cars being manufactured could be drastically cut while still
increasing the number of jobs in the industry. 4.4 Increasing the collection rate for paper recycling alone from 30% to
75% (the Netherlands rate) would create up to 4,500 jobs in recycling. (Working
Futures p67.) 4.5 A report by LPAC/Environment Agency shows that recycling in London
alone offers to create 14,000 extra jobs in the next decade - bringing
processing industry back into the city and making a major contribution to
tackling the waste problems on London's estates and streets. (Reinventing
Waste: Towards a London Waste Strategy, August 1998.) 4.6 Dealing with waste in greener ways sustains more jobs than dealing
with it in less sustainable ways. In New York it was found that processing 1
million tons of waste sustained: 40-60 jobs if the waste was landfilled 100-290 jobs if the waste was incinerated 200-300 jobs through mixed solid waste composting 400-590 jobs if the waste was recycled 4.7 In Vermont, where economies of scale were less (probably more
likenable to the average UK scenario), it was found that processing 1 million
tons of waste sustained: 50-360 jobs if the waste was landfilled 550-2,000 jobs if the waste was recycled (Working Futures pp68-69) Policy initiatives 1. Comprehensive eco-taxation to deter pollution and dependency on finite
resources. 2. Pump-priming investment for sectors involved with reuse, repair,
recycling and waste reduction. 5. Greening
Industry Generally Protect the environment, create jobs 5.1 A recent report by Energy for Sustainable Development Ltd shows how,
for an investment of £2.2 billion a year, up to half a million UK jobs could
be created by a range of policies calculated to cut CO2 emissions by 30% by
2010. A smaller investment of £0.75 billion a year could create 230,000 jobs
and cut CO2 by 20%. (Cutting CO2 - Creating Jobs: An economic analysis of
policies to cut UK CO2 emissions by 20% or more, ESD for Friends of the
Earth, 1998.) 5.2 Cambridge Econometrics have found that applying the 'Polluter Pays'
principle would create 200,000 jobs in the pollution control industry. They
also found that a major investment programme to improve water quality could
create 696,000 extra jobs. (A Green Scenario for the UK economy.) 5.3 Even a Labour Party report in 1994 found that 'higher environmental
standards' could generate 682,000 jobs, allowing for a carbon tax and various
investments (In Trust for Tomorrow, Labour Party Policy Commission
on the Environment.) Unfortunately the Labour Party has consistently opted
for similar policies to the previous Conservative government, and has taken
only tentative steps towards greening the economy. 5.4 Capital- and resource-intensive industries create fewer jobs per £x of
turnover. A study from Alberta, Canada shows how the relatively
resource-intensive (ungreen) industries create relatively few jobs compared
to the less resource-intensive sectors. This study found that for each CAN$1m
of capital expenditure: The oil and gas industry generated 1.4 jobs The manufacturing sector generated 9.2 jobs The agriculture sector generated 13 jobs The services sector generated 32 jobs (See Flavin and Lenssen, Beyond the Petroleum Age: Designing a Solar
Economy, Worldwatch Institute, Washington DC, 1990.) 5.5 As has been seen in other sections, we can take this further by
showing that greener ways of operating within a given sector tend to create
more jobs than relatively ungreen ways of working. 5.6 Manchester Green Party made similar findings to the Alberta study when
considering the job-sustaining record of (local authority-owned) Manchester
Airport plc with other local authority sectors. In Cloud Cuckoo Land: The
sad truth about jobs and Runway 2, various local authority sectors'
annual expenditure was compared with the number of people it employed:
5.7 It is clear that just as there are greener ways of operating which sustain
more jobs, so there are sectors of the economy which are trumpeted as major
creators of jobs which, in fact, have a relatively poor job-creation record
considering the vast amounts of wealth they turn over. 5.8 Green taxation policies offer the principal key to
ecologically-sustainable job-creation. The Employment Policy Institute has
published a report saying that nearly 500,000 jobs could be created if
'eco-taxes' replaced employers' National Insurance contributions. (Planet
News, 1995. See also Guardian 18.10.95.) 5.9 Friends of the Earth UK has recently gone further, and estimated that
an increased escalatory tax on road fuel of 17.6% per annum from 1996 could
increase employment by 1.275m by 2005, if the revenue from the tax was
recycled through a decrease in employers' National Insurance contributions.
(See Working Futures pp84-85.) As the cost of supporting one person
on benefit for a year is probably about £10,000 (it was £9,000 in 1994
according to an Employment Policy Institute paper - D Piachaud, 'A Price
Worth Paying?'), then this combined job-creation/environmental protection
effort could be saving the treasury some £12.75 billion a year by 2005. 5.10 On this basis - and in the light of all the other evidence presented
in this report - it can be confidently asserted, as a conservative estimate,
that Green policies could create an additional one million UK jobs during
a10-year period of Green industrial revolution. Conclusion The viable option for voters in June 2001 C1 Public opinion has gradually fallen in with Green Party policy on a
range of issues from road-building and traffic reduction to
genetically-modified foods and organic agriculture. There is every reason to
suppose that the public would heartily approve of Green job-creation
policies. And we know from the above that these policies are viable. C2 Society can choose: an economic system which is ecologically
unsustainable and which contains a built-in job-destruction dynamic; or a
society which is both sustainable and fair, in which job-creation and
sustainability go hand-in-hand. C3 In June 2001 the UK electorate will have the opportunity to vote for
sustainability AND jobs. We hope our message gets through. Acknowledgments Thanks to the following for their assistance with the
preparation of this report: the Association for the Conservation of Energy,
the European Information Service, Friends of the Earth UK, Greenpeace UK,
Sustain (the Food and Farming Alliance), Transport 2000. Dr Spencer Fitz-Gibbon Green
Party of England & Wales |