1st Jun 2009

Green New Deal: Jobs Pledge for Yorkshire

Green Party MEP candidate has the answer to teenage unemployment.

The Green Party is campaigning in Yorkshire and the Humber not just to win a seat at the European Parliament but also with a call to create thousands of new green-collar jobs in new green industries. With current polls showing the Green Party at 11% and that overall 34% are considering voting Green, the party has a good chance of gaining its first European representative for Yorkshire and the Humber. Martin Hemingway will fight hard for the region, unlike UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom who has only attended 60% of the sessions while drawing a salary of over £60,000 a year.

Martin Hemingway, lead candidate for the region in the European Elections on June 4th, is touring the region with a large 'cheque' which promises a million green jobs for the UK. This would mean 100,000 new jobs in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Martin is telling people on his tour of the region "The UK has more than 40% of Europe's wind resources and, off our shores, marine energy from waves and tides could generate up to 20% of our electricity[1]. Like Germany, we should already have created more than 250,000 jobs in renewable energy. However, our failure to develop this industry means we are lagging behind, with only 26,000 green energy jobs at most.[2]

"Many thousands more jobs could also be created in recycling and repairing goods and in local food production. Add an effective programme of insulation and energy efficiency and the total number of jobs would increase even further. In Yorkshire and the Humber alone there are more than 994,000 homes with unfilled cavity walls, representing 61.2% of the homes that could be insulated.[3]

"On Saturday I visited Kirklees where an initiative led by Green Party councillors has shown that homes can be insulated quickly, cheaply and effectively. In England there are 9 million households where people could benefit from insulation, saving homeowners money at a time of increasing fuel prices."

The Green Party plans are part of a Green New Deal that will focus European institutions on creating millions of new green jobs, energy security and a stronger, more resilient economy. A Green Party MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber would work alongside other Green Party MEPs from across Europe (there are 43 in the current parliament) to develop these plans and put them into place quickly so the region will benefit from the New Green Deal and gain its share of the new jobs. Yorkshire still has engineering skills and expertise which could be used to drive forward renewable energy capacity. Older more experienced workers could pass their skills and knowledge on to the younger generation so that local expertise is not lost.

The programme could reverse the decline in skilled jobs across Yorkshire and the Humber.

The six key Green New Deal pledges aimed at creating green jobs are:

• Provide free insulation for everyone, using energy company profits to cut bills and create jobs
• End subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear, and use the money to build world-class green energy industries
• Train the workforce we need, with a strategic approach to providing new training places for the green industries of the future.
• End soft touch regulation on polluting power stations and give the renewables industry the break it needs
• Regulate big banking to stabilise the financial system, and close the loopholes which allow tax havens to operate.
• Transform rules on procurement to help schools and hospitals buy from local producers.

The Green Party aims to double its number of MEPs in June's European Elections. These are held under proportional representation rules, which means that every vote counts and can help elect new Green MEPs. There are currently two Green MEPs - for the South East and London.

ENDS

1. 'Future Marine Energy', Carbon Trust, January 2006
2. See 'Renewable Energy Jobs Soar in Germany', RenewableEnergyWorld.com, news release 8.4.08, and 'Supply Chain Constraints on the Deployment of Renewable Electricity Technologies', Douglas-Westwood/BERR, June 2008.
3. Uninsulated cavity walls in English regions, 2005: (Figures from Dept of Communities and Local Government)

Contacts

Martin Hemingway:
Lead Green Party candidate for the European Elections on June 4th 2009
15 St Chad's Drive, Headingley, Leeds LS6 3PZ
0113 278 6017 or 07830249115

Lesley Hedges:
Green Party Regional Press Officer for Yorkshire and the Humber
62 High Street, Golcar, Huddersfield HD7 4NJ
01484 652932 or 07939473269

Promoted by Clive Lord of 44 Upper Batley Low Lane, Batley, WF17 0AP on behalf of Yorkshire & The Humber Green Party, 73 Eskdale Rd, Sheffield, S6 1SL

York Green Party - Holgate Villa, 22 Holgate Road, York YO24 4AB. Tel/fax 01904 636239