GMB Warns Just Transition Commission To Face Up To “Hard Truths” On Renewables Jobs & Subsidies Failure

GMB Warns Just Transition Commission To Face Up To “Hard Truths” On Renewables Jobs And Subsidies Failure

Responding to the findings and recommendations of the Just Transition Commission’s interim report this morning (Thursday 27 February), GMB Scotland Secretary Gary Smith said:

“It’s very hard not be sceptical about the prospects for jobs and prosperity as the country moves towards a low carbon economy. Frankly, the report itself is a missed opportunity and the commission must face up to some hard truths.

“The report asks us to “learn the lessons of Longannet” but that failure is already being repeated and the BiFab yards in Fife and Lewis are evidence of this.  Scotland’s green energy revolution is being built by China, Indonesia and the UAE – anywhere but Scotland.

“Meanwhile the bill payer is subsidising those renewables industry firms to the tune of billions of pounds through the contracts for difference and constraint payments schemes, while one in four Scottish households exist in fuel poverty.

“There is nothing just about what’s happened since we were promised the “Saudi Arabia of renewables” over a decade ago. Instead we are haemorrhaging renewables jobs and subsidising that failure, while more people are getting poorer.  

“This is happening because we have no industrial strategy, no investment mechanism to deliver it and no participation with the workers and communities who will continue to see their livelihoods slip away as the inevitable demands of climate change kick-in.”

ENDS

Contact: GMB Scotland Communications on 0141 352 8162 or 07976 447077.