‘Thousands of jobs in oil and gas are at risk of disappearing without being replaced by new work – this is the context that the populist Right is seeking to exploit,’ warn union leaders
The energy transition will only happen thanks to the efforts of tens of thousands of energy workers.
This might seem an obvious point, but it is one that is surprisingly absent from the national debate on Net Zero. We talk about the technologies we might need, the costs to government or the potential savings on household bills and the impact on our energy security, far more than we talk about the workers.
As a country we spend far more time debating the people blocking wind farms than we do discussing the people building them.
If we are going to achieve the government’s ambitious decarbonisation goals, we need to bring energy workers to the centre of the national conversation. This is vital to resolving the serious workforce challenges presented by a rapid transition to new forms of energy generation.
READ MORE: Unions warn Labour must convince Brits of green jobs boost to counter Reform
If we are going to seize the opportunities on offer, we will need tens of thousands of skilled workers to build new wind farms and nuclear power stations, install millions of solar panels, retrofit houses and change heating systems, and deliver the upgrades to the grid that will get clean power to where it is needed.
And if the UK is going to maximise the economic benefits from this transition, we also need to make sure that the kit we use is manufactured in the UK as much as possible, whether that is for turbines or nuclear fuel.
For the first time in decades, we have a government that understands that this can only be done with a clear industrial strategy. The market alone will deliver a transition that is neither quick nor just.
The approach of the previous government saw major infrastructure decisions like Sizewell C kicked into the long grass, a ridiculous ban on onshore wind, and no interest in British jobs. As a result, we missed crucial opportunities to onshore key production lines, and thousands of jobs that could have been based in Britain were shipped overseas. This was a tragedy and it was avoidable.
The Labour government’s Clean Energy Industrial Strategy is a welcome antidote to this, backed up by Great British Energy and a National Wealth Fund investing in UK energy projects.
The first year has seen progress on new nuclear and renewable projects. For the first time in years, energy trade unions like Prospect and GMB have been properly consulted on the polices that will shape our members’ lives.
But we need to be bigger and bolder when it comes to the workforce and jobs. Research we commissioned from YouGov has found that only 8% of UK voters have seen an increase in energy jobs in their area because of the transition. When thinking about the future only 31% of people in the UK think that the transition will have a positive impact on jobs nationally, and that falls to 20% when asked to think about jobs in their local area.
These numbers fall still further in traditional energy communities in the north of England, Wales and Scotland where thousands of jobs in oil and gas are at risk of disappearing without being replaced by new work.
This is the context that the populist Right is seeking to exploit, and it is these energy communities they are often targeting. Let’s be clear, Reform’s policy to scrap the energy transition would be a disaster for Britain and would put thousands of jobs at risk.
The public aren’t convinced either, only a small minority oppose the transition, but the majority do want to see a focus on the economy and on jobs. If this transition doesn’t result in good, unionised jobs, and if energy communities are left on the scrapheap, then more and more people will be attracted by the siren voice of climate denial.
The answer is to put workers front and centre, and make clear that this transition is going to be delivered by them and with their interests in mind. We need an ambitious energy workforce plan that focuses on job numbers and job quality, a real Just Transition plan for energy communities, and a huge national effort to train the next generation of energy workers.
Our unions have formed a new campaign group, Climate Jobs UK, to fight for these outcomes and we will be turning up the volume in the coming years to make sure the voice of energy workers is impossible to ignore.
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