{"id":24088,"date":"2020-10-06T16:08:37","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T15:08:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=24088"},"modified":"2020-10-06T16:08:39","modified_gmt":"2020-10-06T15:08:39","slug":"a-poverty-of-ambition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=24088","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098A poverty of ambition\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Prime minister Boris Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pledge that every UK home will be powered by electricity from offshore wind farms by 2030 revealed \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a poverty of ambition\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, compared with the vast sums that France and Germany were investing in this sector.<\/p>\n

Unite said today (October 6) that the prime minister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s promise at the virtual Conservative party conference was a welcome late-conversion to wind farms, but questioned whether there was an over-reliance on wind, when a future energy policy should include a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098mix\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 of supply, including low-carbon nuclear.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe welcome the prime minister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s conversion to offshore wind farms, but what it reveals is the poverty of ambition compared with France and Germany,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Unite assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe spending proposed by Boris Johnson pales into significance with the vast sums that our main European competitors have invested in this sector.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe commitment for 60 per cent of the turbines to be manufactured in the UK only highlights that much more could have been done to invest in this sector and the jobs boost that would have been created. This was highlighted by the closure of Vestas on the Isle of Wight a decade ago.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Johnson rhetoric will turn out to be a mirage without a strong economy, retention of skilled jobs and investment in apprenticeships \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and this means that chancellor Rishi Sunak needs to continue to do much more to protect employment as we go through the coronavirus pandemic,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she concluded.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Only a partial picture\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat we are waiting for is the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much-delayed energy White Paper which will show how the UK reaches its pledge of net-zero carbon emissions across all forms of energy by 2050,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite national officer for energy Peter McIntosh said.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis will include low carbon nuclear and renewables, such as wind power. What the prime minister spoke about today is only a partial picture of what needs to be done to keep the lights on for industry, business and the consumer,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McIntosh added.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Hollow words\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And the windfarm pledge that every UK home will be powered by electricity from offshore windfarms by 2030 and that\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u0141160m will be spent on building more wind turbines\u00c2\u00a0 was described as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098hollow words\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 under the current UK government.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe announcement by the prime minister that the UK will commit to 60 per cent of turbines to be manufactured domestically is rehashed rhetoric\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Unite Scottish secretary, Pat Rafferty.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe UK government has repeatedly failed to act on recommendations for years and\u00c2\u00a0belatedly\u00c2\u00a0adopting this\u00c2\u00a0target only serves to highlight their years of\u00c2\u00a0inaction and abandonment of the domestic supply chain.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Sector on life support\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe onshore and offshore wind sector in Scotland is on life support,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 continued Rafferty.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have the\u00c2\u00a0BiFab yards\u00c2\u00a0and CS Wind in Campbeltown sitting idle. The prime minister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pledge are hollow words for these communities.\u00c2\u00a0SSE is awarding work everywhere but Scotland.\u00c2\u00a0EDF awarding scraps from the table. CS Wind’s Korean owners have mothballed its factory.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTalk is cheap. We need action and we need that right now. We urgently\u00c2\u00a0need the contracts for difference scheme totally reformed\u00c2\u00a0to legally ensure that domestic based firms are guaranteed work from the billions of pounds being poured into the on and offshore wind sector. The reality is that the people of Fife, Lewis and Argyll and Bute haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen a penny of it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

By Shaun Noble and Andrew Brady <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prime minister Boris Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pledge that every UK home will be powered by electricity from offshore wind farms by 2030 revealed \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a poverty of ambition\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, compared with the vast sums that France and Germany were investing in this sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1214],"tags":[1205,54,844,1443],"wps_subtitle":"PM\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wind farm pledge \u00e2\u20ac\u0098only part of the picture\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s future energy needs, says Unite","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24088"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24088"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24090,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24088\/revisions\/24090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}