The UK government is being “environmentally reckless” and not acting on the “tremendous economic opportunities” offered by new generation technologies like tidal and floating wind turbines, according to Labour’s shadow secretary for business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS).
Rebecca Long-Bailey’s piece for LabourList followed chancellor Philip Hammond’s budget speech which was widely pilloried for not making reference to climate change, particularly in the wake of the recent IPCC report calling for “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented change”.
“That isn’t just environmentally reckless. It is also throwing away an opportunity to rebuild our manufacturing towns, create hundreds of thousands of skilled jobs and bring down energy costs for households and business,” the shadow secretary said.
She went on to claim that emerging technologies like tidal stream and floating offshore wind both offer huge opportunities in the generation of clean electricity and for British firms, many of whom have predominantly domestic supply chains.
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