Five out of ten for Boris’ ten point plan
Today Boris Johnson announced his ten point plan for a green recovery. The strength of our movement has meant that everybody (including the Government) is now focusing on green jobs as a way to recover from the pandemic and fight climate change at the same time. But this plan is short on detail and on ambition.
The plan is a welcome shift in gear - but unfortunately the scale of the crises we face (both in climate breakdown and unemployment/inequality) means that we need to replace the whole engine.
Let’s start with the positives. The ban on new petrol and diesel cars is a serious step forward. It is brilliant news for communities blighted by air pollution and will save many thousands of lives. But the ban must be met in ambition with financial backing for the industries of the future.
Meeting the scale of the crisis
We’re staring in the face of a huge recession, with nearly 2 million jobs at risk in the long-term. That's a rate of unemployment not seen since the 1980s, which will hit the poorest hardest. When Roosevelt responded to the Great Depression he didn’t just pledge a few million to the odd sector here and there. His New Deal for America put them on a path to economic recovery and prosperity. A Green New Deal can do the same for the UK.
We can and must do so much more than this proposal. France and Germany have made much more ambitious pledges. If the government matched the scale of the problem with a comparable solution, the UK could do the same.
It might not sound like a green job to most people yet - but we know that care work and nursing is low carbon work. And it's this work that will stitch our communities back together after this crisis.
Green jobs and investment goes beyond wind turbines and hard hats - it includes the frontline workers that have kept the UK going throughout the pandemic. These workers must be at the heart of the green recovery, with investment in these areas creating far more stable jobs than any of this government’s pet projects.
There couldn’t be a better time for determined government action. The government has an opportunity to address multiple crises at once, starting right now - and if they leave it too late, the consequences will be disastrous for people’s livelihoods and our planet.
We need much more than a half-baked plan - we need a Green New Deal.
So Boris, here are three things you could do tomorrow to really face the scale of our nation’s challenges:
- invest in creating 1.2 million green jobs over the next two years,
- end austerity once and for all and invest in our public services
- roll out a huge programme of insulating every single leaky home in Britain.
It’s all well and good having a ten point plan. We need you to make sure it lives up to the challenges that lie ahead.
More than 50,000 people have already signed our petition calling on the government to invest in green jobs on the scale that is needed. Will you add your name?
Want to get involved in the campaign for Green Jobs for All?
Then we've got a job for you: come along to one of our briefing calls to find out just how many green jobs could be created in your region, and how to make a splash about it:
