Clean energy jobs are not being created at the pace or scale needed to make up for the decline of North Sea oil or gas, the Government has been warned. A major report sounds the alarm as Sir Keir Starmer’s Government pursues its goal of achieving 95% clean power by 2030 and net zero by 2050.
A cross-party group of MPs is urging the Government not to accelerate the decline of the oil and gas industry. The UK’s oil and gas workforce has shrunk from 190,700 in 2016 to 115,000 last year. The Scottish Affairs Committee is alarmed by the handling of the closure of the Grangemouth refinery, saying the UK and Scottish Governments should have acted sooner to prepare for job losses and spare the local community “trauma”. The MPs describe this as a “canary in a coalmine” moment.
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice responded to the report, saying: “We have reached a point where the obsession with net stupid zero initiatives is taking priority over British jobs and affordable energy.
“If this Labour Government were serious about fixing the economy and driving investment and growth in the UK, it would prioritise North Sea oil and gas production and a programme of reindustrialisation.
“Only Reform will scrap the preposterous net zero initiatives that continue to burden the taxpayer and place massive strain on our infrastructure.”
Shadow Scottish Secretary Andrew Bowie said: “Ed Miliband is shutting down the North Sea, losing 1,000 jobs a month, missing out on £12billion of tax revenue and making us more dependent on imports of foreign gas with higher emissions.
“New energy jobs are not being created anywhere near fast enough to replace those being lost. Yet Labour are accelerating decline by blocking new licences and piling more bureaucracy on the very industries that power our economy.”
GMB Scotland secretary Louise Gilmour said: “The alarm bells around the so-called just transition have been ringing constantly for years but are now deafening. Ministers can no longer stick their fingers in their ears and shout more loudly about all the great things coming tomorrow while ignoring catastrophic job losses today.
“No matter how many times they are repeated, promises and platitudes will not feed families, heat homes, or protect our communities. We must build supply chains in renewables, but our offshore industries demand urgent protection because our country will need its oil and gas, energy security and jobs for years to come.”
The report warns that jobs in clean energy are not being created fast enough to make up for losses in the fossil fuel sector.
It states: “The scale-up of clean energy is progressing more slowly than the decline of the oil and gas sector. The Government should avoid accelerating the decline of North Sea oil and gas production through its policy environment while this remains the case.”
The MPs argue that because the UK will continue to use fossil fuels for “decades to come”, it makes sense to “meet as much of that need as possible from domestic sources”.
They are concerned that high taxes are fuelling job losses, warning that the energy profits levy – the so-called “windfall tax” – forces the headline rate of tax up to 78%.
“It is vital that the skills of workers who have made Scotland’s oil and gas industry successful are not lost,” they state.
The Labour manifesto contained a pledge not to “issue new licences to explore new fields”, but the report urges the Government to “take a pragmatic approach to North Sea licensing policy and clarify how developers may be permitted to undertake additional drilling activity under existing exploration licenses”.
Patricia Ferguson, who chairs the Scottish Affairs Committee, said: “Today’s report outlines our concerns that jobs from the clean energy industry are simply not being created fast enough, or on the scale needed, to match the mounting job losses from the oil and gas sector.
“It’s vital that the Government moves quickly to plug this employment gap, replace jobs being lost and ensure a smooth energy transition for workers and communities.
“Until this is tackled, the Government should avoid making decisions that would further accelerate oil and gas production’s decline.”