Climate Jobs UK reception puts workers at the heart of the energy transition
The Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband MP was among the guests at a reception hosted by Climate Jobs UK, the campaign group jointly founded by Prospect and GMB to ensure that workers are fully represented as the UK transitions to a clean energy future.
The well-attended evening event, held at One Great George Street in central London this week, brought together politicians, trade union and industry leaders, and workers from across the energy sector.
Among the speakers were:
- Ed Miliband MP, Energy Security Secretary
- Mike Clancy, Prospect General Secretary
- Sue Ferns, Prospect Senior Deputy General Secretary
- Prospect rep Audrey Uppington and CJUK board member
- Gary Smith, GMB General Secretary
Climate Jobs UK was launched last summer, with the support from the Climate Jobs National Resource Centre, which has a history of working with unions in the United States to run campaigns on how to create good union jobs while tackling the climate crisis.
There was unanimous agreement from the evening’s speakers that the energy transition will only happen thanks to the efforts of tens of thousands of energy workers.
However, the point was also made that too often in the net zero debate, politicians and policy-makers talk about ideas and reforms, but not enough about the workers and the good, unionised jobs that would make those ideas and reforms possible.
This is why worker voice lies at the core of Climate Jobs UK’s mission: to bring energy workers to the centre of the national conversation as the UK seeks to achieve its net zero goals and make its transition to low carbon economy.
- See more photos from the reception on Prospect’s Flickr account.
- Find out more: https://climatejobs.org.uk/
