28 March 2023 – Shadow Net Zero Secretary, Ed Miliband, will explain how Labour’s green growth plan will create jobs, signalling that Labour is the party for the environment as well as the economy.
With a general election likely taking place next year, Labour is keen to show the country that they are the party to solve the UK’s problems. With polls showing them to be far ahead of the Conservatives, they try to cement their lead by showing how their green growth plan will boost the UK economy.
By focusing their growth plan on green energy, they position themselves as the party for the environment. And with that in stark contrast to the Government, who has only recently approved a new coal mine in Cumbria.
Ed Miliband wants to show the country that his party will not only save the UK economy but doing so without harming the planet even further.
Labour’s Green Growth Plan
Leaning on President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which focuses on investing in renewable energy and green technology to bring jobs to the American people and meet environmental targets, Labour plans to invest £8bn in their ambitious green growth plan.
The state-funded investment should then encourage private investment in green projects which will bring clean jobs. Labour is also planning to bring these jobs to deprived areas outside London and the south-east, where they are most needed.
The climate crisis will be used as the driver for this green revolution, which Labour believes the UK can lead.
We could be global leaders in some of this. There is a real urgency because growth is so low. This would be real levelling up, where the government has failed. We have got a serious plan and we just want a chance to get on and get started with it.
Ravel Reves, Shadow Chancellor, Labour Party
That the environment is a top priority for Labour is also evident in an already made pledge of the party to invest £28bn a year in the first eight years of a Labour Government on climate measures. With this commitment, Labour firmly positions itself as the party for the environment.
The Labour Leader Keir Stamer has already announced his party’s intention to create a new national champion for clean energy, Great British Energy. Not only will this focus on green energy help the UK to meet net zero targets, but it will also create jobs, reduce energy bills and deliver energy security.
The Government’s Net Zero Strategy
In the meantime, the Government is also planning to launch its revised Net Zero Stratgey this week. And from the outset, the signs indicate that the environment is not the focus.
Originally, the launch was supposed to be called “green day” and take place in Whitehall. But now it will be called “energy security day”, according to the Guardian, and will take place in Aberdeen, which is said to be the UK’s oil and gas capital.
So rather than focusing on net zero and the environment, the new strategy will focus on infrastructure.
While the exact details of the new strategy have not been released ahead of the launch, the Guardian has been told some of what it will contain.
Rather than stopping the drilling for oil and gas, the Government plans to extend this under its new strategy. It will argue that this is necessary to ensure lights are kept on in UK homes.
To counteract the increased carbon emissions, the Government will invest in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which is currently still in its infant stage. This means this technology is still untested at scale. It could take years until carbon capture and storage could become a viable option.
According to a report by the Institute for Energy Econcomics and Financial Analysis, carbon capture and storage is not a climate solution. Campaigners have called this use of CCS technology as “greenwashing”.
The strategy is also said to miss some of the recommendations by the Government’s own review of net zero by former Energy Minister Chris Skidmore. Including stopping oil and gas companies from flaring by 2025 and creating an overreaching new office for net zero.
Ofgem will also not be able to include net zero targets in regulations for the energy sector, as it won’t get any important powers.
There won’t be any laws to ensure homes are energy efficient. New houses won’t have to have solar panels installed and there won’t be a nationwide programme to insulate UK houses, ignoring calls for such measures from various green groups.
Campaigners were stunned by the reported changes and that a net zero strategy does not mention the environment.
This is Fawlty Towers politics – don’t mention the environment! It’s a sop to the right wing. It’s clear this is not a strategy, just an assembly of lobby interests.
Tom Burke, Co-Founder of the E3G think tank
Whichever party will win the next general election, how they deal with the climate crisis is vital, not just for our planet but also for the UK economy. And at the moment it looks like the Labour Party has the edge as the party for the environment.
