Green Party

Half a million jobs could be created under Green Party proposals to tackle the recession and save households money. The proposals would help thousands of people back into work while tackling climate change and reducing our dependency on oil imports. The ‘Green New Deal’ report, authored by Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas and several other green economists and campaigners, calls for governments across Europe to invest in measures that will help the environment and create jobs.

Adrian Ramsay, Green Party Deputy Leader and Parliamentary Candidate for Norwich South, said: “Many thousands more jobs could be created by insulating homes, installing solar panels, recycling and repairing goods, investing in public transport and supporting local food production. Investing in these areas would create skilled manual jobs and the sustainable retail and office-based jobs associated with them.”

As well as creating jobs the Green proposals would:
• slash people’s bills
• cut carbon emissions
• lift thousands of people out of fuel
poverty
• provide secure local energy
• reduce our dependency on dwindling
oil imports.

A recent report published by HSBC bank, entitled ‘A Climate for Recovery’, highlighted that Britain is falling a long way behind other European countries
in measures to create green jobs.

Adrian Ramsay continued: “In the UK we are already lagging far behind other European countries in green jobs and technology. To give just two examples: Portugal gets 40% of its energy from renewable sources, while the UK gets a meagre 5%. Germany has 250,000 jobs in renewable energy and more than 1.8 million jobs in environmental protection. The German Government recently announced plans to tackle the recession by tripling the number of green jobs over the next ten years.

“Here in Norwich we have one of the highest levels of unemployment in East Anglia and we are feeling the effects of the Government’s inaction. It is
shameful that the Government is failing to grasp the opportunity to boost jobs and tackle climate change. The Government has talked about a
Green New Deal but is not making green jobs a priority.

“As well as investing directly in public transport, renewable energy and other areas where jobs could be created, we need more Government attention on skills training for these areas. We also need measures to support local food production. This would include a change in the law to make it easier for councils, hospitals and other public organisations to insist on using local products whenever they are available.”

One of the Green Party’s proposals is a free insulation scheme for homes across the country paid for by a tax on energy companies that continue to
make huge profits. In England alone there are more than nine million homes without insulation. Insulating these homes would reduce people’s
bills and bring huge cuts in carbon emissions.

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