Green Deputy dismisses Hutton over jobs: green energy is the answer not nuclear
17 September 2008
News from the Green Party | 18 September 2008
GREEN DEPUTY DISMISSES HUTTON OVER JOBS: GREEN ENERGY IS THE ANSWER NOT NUCLEAR
Green Deputy Leader, Norwich Councillor Adrian Ramsay, has declared the government’s nuclear plans ‘unworkable’ today, in response to Business Secretary John Hutton’s speech to the Nuclear Development Forum.
The Green Party is proposing a Green New Deal to revitalise the UK economy and slash carbon emissions. Adrian said today that, compared with nuclear power, green energy and energy saving would be far better investments for industry, and create far greater numbers of new jobs.
Today, Hutton will tell the nuclear industry: “I’m determined to press all the buttons to get nuclear built in this country at the earliest opportunity.”
Adrian said:
“This government’s obsession with smoothing the way for nuclear power is a huge distraction from the action we need to create a truly future-proof economy. Their plans are unworkable: focused on the needs of one industry not on the interests of the UK economy as whole.
“Figures from our Green MEPs show that investment in renewable energy would create far more jobs than nuclear power. These jobs would be far more secure in the future as they would come from many investment projects at many different scales, rather than the tiny number of huge deals involved in building new nuclear plants.
“Meeting our 2020 wind targets alone 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. We are lagging behind our European neighbours already. In Germany there are 250,000 jobs in renewable energy but here we have 26,000 at best.
“Hutton needs to put more effort and more vision into his plans for the UK energy industry, or we will be left behind in the race to create the Green economy of the future.”
Green MEP Jean Lambert published a report earlier this month, ‘Green Work’ setting out how new green industries would require far more workers than nuclear or conventional energy, and showing how the UK is lagging far behind other countries.
The report also highlighted a historic lack of investment in the skills needed to take advantage of these opportunities. It said that a major focus for training should be for people leaving full-time education – exactly the groups who will be hit worst by the current financial crisis and job losses in service industries like banking.
ENDS
Notes:
1. Read the Green Party's ‘Green Work’ report here: www.greenparty.org.uk/files/reports/2008/GreenWork_report.pdf
2. Other Green criticisms of nuclear:
Apart from the jobs issue, Greens have long criticised the nuclear industry for a range of problems it causes:
- costing the taxpayer millions in subsidies
- causing concern over safety and pollution
- increasing the threat of a terrorist attack
- not being deployable as quickly as renewable energy to plug the energy gap
- costing more in the long term
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