UK must learn from energy policy failures to set standard at COP26

Regions and nations of the UK blueprint for how NOT to deliver the green jobs revolution, says GMB Union 

GMB, the energy union, has said the UK must learn from its own energy and industrial policy failures if it is to set the standard at the COP26 summit in Glasgow. 

The union’s call comes after Shadow Business Secretary Ed Miliband said Boris Johnson must take ‘personal responsibility’ for the talks. 

Gary Smith, GMB General Secretary, said: “Climate justice and economic justice must go hand-in-hand -which means delivering the jobs transition to help reach net zero. 

“But with the world coming to Glasgow, the UK isn’t any closer to this than it was in 2015.  

“The regions and nations of the UK are a blueprint for how not to deliver the green jobs revolution. Look at Scotland and the broken promises of 28,000 offshore wind manufacturing jobs and “a Saudi Arabia of renewables”. Instead supply chains have been starved of work and investment.  

“Despite this, our political class persist in playing fast and loose with the futures of energy workers, and with security of supply.  

“This is not how you take working class people with you on a journey to net zero.  

“The UK can’t set the standards at COP26 unless we start learning the lessons from our own failures on energy and industrial policy.”