LABOUR PARTY leader Ed Miliband has prioritised the green economy in his latest address at the annual Labour Conference.
During the most recent annual party conference, Miliband set out his 10-year plan and pledged to create one million more green jobs in the “low-carbon and environmental goods and service” sector by 2025 to help secure the UK’s position as a world leader in green industries.
The Labour leader who previously served as energy and climate change secretary, also announced that his party would commit to remove all carbon from electricity by 2030, develop a Green Investment Bank which would have powers to borrow and attract new investment and insulate a further 5 million homes over the next ten years.
“Under this Government, we’re falling behind Germany, Japan, the United States and even India and China when it comes to green technology and services,” he said.
He continued to commend those businesses which are already playing a part in helping Britain become more sustainable but criticised the current government for not providing them with enough support.
“The environment isn’t that fashionable anymore – but it matters.”
“It’s incredibly important to our economy and there is no more important an issue for me than tackling global climate change.”
In response to Miliband’s environmental pledge, Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist, Greenpeace UK said: “Ed Miliband today showed he understands the scale of the climate challenge and made some real steps towards shifting the UK economy onto a greener path. It’s a path which leads to a vibrant economy, better, warmer homes and the million green tech jobs he talked of.”
“People will welcome the jobs and prosperity a greener economy will bring, but these benefits will only be delivered by cleaning up our power sector, and that means getting rid of coal. Ed needs to take a stand against this government’s planned multi-billion subsidies to prop up the big six’s dirty coal plants. It’s what the people want.”
The five other key national goals included:
- Apprenticeships: To ensure that as many school-leavers go on to apprenticeships as currently go to university
- Wage growth: To help working families share fairly in the wealth of our country so that when the economy grows the wages of everyday working people grow at the same rate
- Housing: To meet the demand for new homes for the first time in half a century – doubling the number of first-time buyers getting on to the housing ladder a year
- Low pay: To halve the number of people on low pay in our country, changing the lives of more than 2 million people
- Health: To build a world-class, 21st century health and care service
