Climate Jobs UK hosts Energy Secretary and MPs at parliamentary reception

Climate Jobs UK, the campaign group founded by Prospect and the GMB, hosted a parliamentary reception in October with environmental NGO Uplift and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Climate Change.

Back row, left to right: Martin McCluskey MP; Afzal Khan MP; and Pippa Heylings MP. Front row, left to right: Rosie Hampton of Uplift; Prospect’s Sue Ferns OBE; GMB’s Gary Smith; Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh; Dave Douglas of CJUK; and Carla Denyer MP

As well as leading MPs from the APPG on Climate Change, the event was attended by Miatta Fahnbulleh, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Held to mark one year since the publication of the Clean Energy Jobs Plan, speakers at the event, included Prospect Senior Deputy General Secretary Sue Ferns OBE, who said:

“The net zero debate is often characterised by the technologies we might need, the costs to government and the impact on our energy security, but rarely do we talk about the workers and the jobs.

“And when we do talk about workers, it is often about jobs being lost rather than any jobs being gained. The reality though is that workers and jobs are completely central to delivering the energy transition.”

She added that the Clean Energy Jobs Plan was an essential first step and the Work Fair Charter was a further positive development but that the focus must now be on delivery.

“Bold ambitions and proclamations of future jobs need to be delivered now, and they need to just be the start of a process that puts workers and good, unionised jobs at the centre of our clean energy transition,” she said.