OPEN LETTER TO ALL POLITICAL PARTY LEADERS FROM CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANISATIONS

OPEN LETTER TO ALL POLITICAL PARTY LEADERS FROM CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANISATIONS

As climate and environmental organisations, we are calling on the incoming government to commit to a phase out of oil and gas in the North Sea. This is a crucial step if we are to meet our legally binding climate commitments, address the UK’s historic role as a disproportionate producer of emissions, and prevent further devastating loss and damage, which communities least responsible for the climate crisis across the world are suffering the worst consequences of.

All steps to accelerate the transition away from oil and gas must be accompanied by a clear and funded transition plan for the workers and communities that currently rely on the industry.

Oil and gas workers have laid out policy demands for an energy transition in the Our Power report, which has the support of Unite the Union Scotland, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), and Unison Scotland.

As the climate movement, alongside phasing-out oil and gas in line with liveable climate limits, we are calling on the incoming government to commit to:

• A UK-wide industrial strategy, which prioritises substantial investment in domestic manufacturing and skills, reorganises the tax system for public good, and expands publicly-owned renewable energy production. Only by expanding democratic control at all levels of our energy system and building community wealth, will we be able to create secure green jobs for fossil fuel workers, end fuel poverty, and ensure the benefits of the transition are retained by communities.
• Worker involvement in every stage of just transition planning, by expanding sectoral collective bargaining across the energy industry and supply chain. This will enable workers and unions to negotiate just transition plans which meet climate targets and provide training and employment opportunities.
• A Jobs Guarantee, providing financial support for every offshore and onshore oil and gas worker who is not supported by the above measures to find equivalent, alternative employment or has to take time out of employment to undertake training. This ‘guarantee’ must include a wage and conditions floor, negotiated with recognised trade unions to ensure workers are not forced into low paid or unsafe jobs in the emerging renewables industry.

The North Sea’s shift away from oil and gas production is already underway, as the basin’s reserves decline. Over the past decade, the number of jobs supported by the oil and gas industry in the UK has halved, with some 227,000 jobs lost since 2013. This is despite the UK government issuing roughly 400 new drilling licences over the same period and energy companies recording record breaking profits.

Instead of responding by ending profiteering by the energy industry and delivering a worker-led just transition, the UK government has continued to unconditionally hand out generous tax breaks to the fossil fuel industry. Meanwhile, industry bosses have been left to determine the terms of the decline, prioritising shareholder profits over affordable energy, green investment or job creation.

The longer we wait to implement a worker-led just transition in the North Sea – and other high carbon industries – the worse off communities that rely on these industries will be. We are already seeing this at Grangemouth Oil Refinery, where Petroineos have decided to close the refinery without agreeing a binding transition plan with trade unions that protects the workforce or community. The same is happening at Port Talbot Steelworks, where workers are being forced to take industrial action to protect their jobs.

The climate movement stands in solidarity with these workers and unions.

The party that forms a government after the July 4th election must end the decade of empty promises and urgently implement a credible transition plan for the North Sea and its dedicated workforce, who are vital to the delivery of the transition to clean energy.

A plan that transforms our broken energy system; invests in workers and communities; and protects our planet is within reach and must be delivered before the end of the next Parliament