THE Wales Green Party got together with Friends of the Earth took a stand outside Cardiff Job Centre last Saturday to back the call from industry to for more green investment.
Pippa Bartolotti, Wales Green Party Leader said “Industry is sick and tired of being messed around by a government which doesn’t know which way it’s heading. Solar Energy companies have been hit with ever decreasing Feed in Tariffs, and subsidies for other renewable energies are being slashed.
“Yet already one million jobs have been created in the Green industries. What we need is more of the same. The TUC says green is good for growth. Creating more green jobs will help industry, the environment and will give us all a future of employment.”
In the last week, more than 60 UK businesses have put their names to two letters, in one of which seven firms threaten to withdraw investment in the UK if green targets are reduced. In the other, business leaders warn such reductions will cause the economy to lose billions of pounds.
Seven firms, including Siemens, Gamesa and Alstom UK, wrote to Energy Secretary Ed Davey, Chancellor George Osborne and PM David Cameron warning they will withdraw investment in the UK if the government relaxes plans to decarbonise the energy industry.
The seven employ 17,500 people and are vital to the development of renewable energy production in the UK.
A Friends of the Earth Spokesman said: “Friends of the Earth is calling on local MPs to tell the government that green jobs are good for the economy. And we want the forthcoming Energy Bill to give a high priority to renewable energy.”
And more than 50 other companies, including Aviva, Microsoft, Marks & Spencer, and the Co-operative, sent an open letter to Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne warning that his energy and environmental plans will lose the UK £110bn in energy investment, as well as £400m in exports in 2014-15 alone.
The Green Party leader added: “Industry is now in accord with environmental groups. Renewable energy is the future, and George Osborne has got it wrong. We need Green jobs, and quickly.”
Industry groups are concerned that Mr Osborne’s insistence that gas, rather than renewable energy, should provide the UK’s power production to 2030 will see it miss decarbonisation targets.”
Pippa Bartolotti is the Leader of the Wales Green Party