Sixty-five climate organisations, endorsed by UK trade unions, have written to the UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves calling for support for offshore oil and gas workers through the energy transition.
The groups are asking for a ringfenced amount of £1.9bn a year until 2030.
The letter, endorsed by the largest union representing UK offshore workers, Unite the Union, as well as the National Union of Rail and Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), the Scottish Trade Union Congress (STUC) and Moray and Aberdeen’s Trades Union Councils, was delivered to the Treasury at a rally today.
It is signed by 65 climate groups including Greenpeace, Uplift, Friends of the Earth, Oil Change International, Extinction Rebellion and Platform.
While noting that the government’s flagship energy transition policies have the potential to create jobs and lower household bills, signatories warn that delivering on these commitments requires a ‘UK-wide industrial strategy – which prioritises public investment in domestic renewables manufacturing and skills, and expands publicly-owned energy production.
Climate groups, endorsed by unions representing at least 1.4 million workers nationwide, are jointly calling for a funding package totalling £1.9bn to provide £1.1bn a year to develop permanent, local jobs in public and community-owned wind manufacturing, £440m of further investment each year for port upgrades to ease pressure on supply chain bottlenecks, which must include the Government taking equity stakes in port upgrades as critical national infrastructure and £355m a year to develop a dedicated training fund for offshore oil and gas workers, to be matched by the industry through a Training Levy on employers.
The letter states that the rapid growth of offshore wind has failed to create adequate jobs growth as manufacturing work is done abroad.
It also criticises an “unfit” training regime which makes moving between industries difficult and expensive and has resulted in poor safety standards, with the injury rate in the offshore wind sector 3-4 times larger than in comparable industries.
Mel Evans, Campaigner at Greenpeace, said: “For too long, industry bosses have pocketed record profits while oil and gas workers bear the brunt of the decline of North Sea oil and gas. Offshore workers have risked life and limb and suffered long stints away from their families to keep this country moving and it’s time the government repaid their sacrifices with an industrial strategy that puts worker justice at its heart.
“Offshore workers have valuable skills that will be essential to delivering Labour’s clean power target. A proper, ring-fenced funding package to upgrade our energy industry would transform our energy sector, reduce household bills, future proof-jobs and provide opportunities for generations to come.”
Joe Rollin, Senior Organiser at Unite the Union said: “Creating sustainable green jobs must be at the heart of the UK’s renewable energy strategy. We can’t allow a situation where North Sea workers face a cliff edge, with no skilled green jobs to go to while the UK becomes more reliant on importing fossil fuels.
“Today unions, workers and climate groups are uniting behind the urgent need for a transition plan for oil and gas workers and public funding to back it up. The Chancellor must now listen.”
Measures exist to enable the government to easily meet the £1.9 billion funding package, including raising taxes on major polluters and the super rich.
The TUC has shown that a modest wealth tax on the richest 140,000 individuals in the UK could raise £10bn for the public purse.
The funding package the groups are calling for is a fraction of the nearly £40bn post-tax profits that oil and gas companies made in the UK in 2022 and 2023.