UK Labor Party leader Keir Starmer made a statement to Scottish voters, pledging to create tens of thousands of clean energy jobs as he unveiled plans to make the UK an “energy superpower net” by 2030.
Britain’s main opposition party is to set up a public clean energy generation company, Great British Energy, in Scotland as part of plans to create half a million jobs in the UK, including 50,000 north of the border , Starmer said in a speech on Monday. in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh.
Starmer is trying to shore up his party’s green credentials while capitalizing on falling support for the Scottish National Party in the wake of an accounting scandal. Labor leads Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives by double digits in the polls, and the SNP’s troubles give Starmer the chance to pick up more than 20 seats north of the border that could be crucial in his attempt to become prime minister in a general election. very much expected next year.
With that in mind, his party has in recent weeks scaled back its opposition to new oil and gas developments in the North Sea, an industry that supports thousands of Scottish jobs. Starmer said any existing oil and gas licenses issued before a Labor government took power would be respected as they moved forward with development.
He vowed not to “cliff edge” oil and gas workers, but promised to protect jobs in the transition to clean energy and learn from the industry’s destruction UK mining in the 1980s. But he also said that clean energy must be increased in the meantime.
Earth wind
“If we wait until the North Sea’s oil and gas runs out, the opportunities this change can bring for Scotland and your community will be lost, and that would be a historic mistake,” Starmer said.
Opposition proposals include lifting a ban on new onshore wind farms within months of taking office and reducing the time it takes to complete clean energy projects from years to months with “difficult new targets”.
The targets reiterate promises that both Labor and Conservative governments have made and failed to keep since the turn of the century. Business leaders complain that planning rules and red tape are holding back investment, particularly in critical green technologies such as wind farms, electric car battery plants and carbon capture facilities.
Under Labour’s plan, a new National Heritage Fund will invest alongside the private sector in renewable energy projects and infrastructure, ultimately helping to lower energy bills and strengthen energy security, Starmer said.
Starmer said his party would reform planning rules to stop so-called Nimby blocking projects. He told BBC radio that he wanted local people to benefit from new projects through cheaper bills and developer investment in local improvements.
“We have to have a mechanism where we can move forward,” Starmer told the BBC. There cannot be “individual vets across the country,” he said.
Climbing back
Starmer is also looking to boost confidence in Labour’s commitment to green energy after the party scaled back a plan to invest 140 billion pounds ($180 billion) over five years in a clean energy transition due to cost concerns. It now aims to “step up” to £28bn a year, rather than achieving that figure from the start of the next term.
The original plan fell victim to efforts by shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves to present a more fiscally conservative face to voters.
Labor’s plans also promise that Britain will run on 100 percent clean energy by 2030, a goal that Phil Thompson, chief executive of clean energy developer Balance Power Group Ltd., said earlier this month is “impossible “.
“It’s a case of shooting for the stars, but I don’t think it’s technically achievable unless someone has a magic wand,” he said.
But Starmer said on Monday that “we have to roll up our sleeves and start building things, run into the barriers”, including planning rules, skills shortages, investor confidence and grid capacity.
“We need to find the reforms that can restart our engine,” he said. “I will not accept a situation where our planning system means it takes 13 years to build an offshore wind farm.”
Workers also need to make sure their union supporters are on board with their plans and there have already been signs of unease. Unions want to make sure fossil fuel jobs aren’t destroyed before enough new ones are created.
Labor, which has a double-digit lead in opinion polls over Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives, hopes a strong climate policy will help it win votes in the next election. A vote, scheduled for January 2025, is expected to take place next year. The party used to dominate in Scotland, holding 41 of its 59 parliamentary seats as recently as 2010.
But the rise of the SNP under Nicola Sturgeon — the party won 56 seats in 2015 and still had 48 in 2019 — has been a major obstacle to its electoral ambitions. However, Sturgeon resigned earlier this year and was recently arrested as part of a police investigation into the SNP’s finances. While she was released without charge, Labor has been gaining ground on the Nationalists in the polls north of the border. A Savanta poll last week found Labor would win 21 new seats in Scotland and defend its only existing constituency in a general election.
–With assistance from Joe Mayes and Andrew Atkinson.
