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Bristol’s Mayor, George Ferguson, has endorsed and supported a report by the South West Green Party calling for strong political leadership on investment in renewable energy in the region. He received the report from Molly Scott Cato, the Green Party’s lead candidate for the South West European Elections in May.
The report [1], co-authored by Professor Scott Cato and Bristol Assistant Mayor Gus Hoyt, identifies the enormous potential of a shift to renewable energy, a sector in which the South West is already a national leader. It challenges politicians to demonstrate support for this key industry which has huge potential for the creation of jobs as well as offering opportunities to reduce carbon emissions.
Molly Scott Cato said:
“Mixed messages on support for the low-carbon economy is undermining investment in these important sectors and destroying jobs in the South West. Already the South West has lost the Atlantic Array in the Bristol Channel, an off-shore 1.4 Gigawatt wind farm project capable of supplying clean energy equivalent to that used by 900,000 homes. The recent disastrous budget has proved again that our dinosaur politicians are way behind our European partners in terms of green economy investment.” [2]
Molly and the Mayor were joined for the presentation by Will Duckworth, deputy leader of the Green Party, and Tony Dyer, the Green’s candidate for Bristol South in the 2015 General Election, along with other members of the Bristol Green Party.
Will Duckworth said
“The Coalition’s government claim to be “the greenest government ever” was always risible – their latest actions demonstrate that the Prime Minister’s references to “green crap” offer a more accurate insight into this government’s attitude to the renewable energy sector”
Tony Dyer, the Green candidate for Bristol South, said ‘South Bristol has huge potential for creating decent jobs, paying decent wages, via investment in low carbon sectors of the economy. Low carbon manufacturing is a further source of jobs that can be delivered by accessing EU funding alongside the private investment that the Mayor and others are already attracting. Only the Greens are willing to fight for this green investment from the EU – only the Greens will fight for the alternatives to the other parties’ short sighted commitments to shale gas and nuclear.’
ENDS
Notes
1. The report (available here: http://bit.ly/1iQvbY9), co-authored confirms the South West region as a national leader in renewable energy, providing a fifth of all UK renewable projects installed under the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme. This represents a massive boost to our regional economy as well as helping to safeguard our environment.
2. Energy giant RWE has announced it will be cutting its proposed £830m investment in clean-tech energy in the UK for 2014 by half: RWE to Cut Clean-Energy Spending by Half From 2014 to Curb Debt View on bloom.bg