Jeremy Corbyn: take control of energy, go green
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In a speech on Saturday afternoon at Labour’s one day
conference on alternative models of ownership in Central London,
Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, will make the
environmental case for public ownership of Britain’s energy
system. Corbyn will argue that “the challenge of
climate change and the threat of climate catastrophe requires us to
be at least as radical” as the 1945 Labour Government that rebuilt
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In a speech on Saturday afternoon at Labour’s one day conference on alternative models of ownership in Central London, Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, will make the environmental case for public ownership of Britain’s energy system.
Corbyn will argue that “the challenge of climate change and the threat of climate catastrophe requires us to be at least as radical” as the 1945 Labour Government that rebuilt Britain after World War Two and created the National Health Service. He will declare that “to go green, we must take control of energy”.
Corbyn will say that the failure of privatisation and the demands of a 21st century economy mean that Labour’s plans for a modern mixed economy will be at the forefront of a “great wave of change across the world in favour of public, democratic ownership and control of our services and utilities.”
He will insist that “it cannot be the workers who pay the price” for energy change and will pledge a comprehensive programme of retraining and employment to all those workers displaced by energy transition in the spirit of the GI Bill that protected returning veterans from the Second World War.
And he will criticise the Conservative Government’s environmental record, labelling it a “trail of environmental destruction”.
On the need for radical action to help avert climate catastrophe, Jeremy Corbyn will say:
“The challenge of climate change requires us to radically shift the way we organise our economy. In 1945, elected to govern a country ravaged by six years of war, the great Attlee Labour Government knew that the only way to rebuild our economy was through a decisive turn to collective action. Necessary action to help avert climate catastrophe requires us to be at least as radical.”
On creating a green and clean energy system, Jeremy Corbyn will say:
“A green energy system will look radically different to the one we have today. The past is a centralised system with a few large plants. The future is decentralised, flexible and diverse, with new sources of energy large and small, from tidal to solar.
“The greenest energy is usually the most local. But people have been queuing up for years to connect renewable energy to the national grid. With the national grid in public hands, we can put tackling climate change at the heart of our energy system. To go green, we must take control of our energy.”
On the new wave of public ownership change across the world, Jeremy Corbyn will say:
“We can put Britain at the forefront of the wave of change across the world in favour of public, democratic ownership and control of our services and utilities.
“From India to Canada, countries across the world are waking up to the fact that privatisation has failed, and taking back control of their public services.
On supporting workers through the green transition, Jeremy Corbyn will say:
“The devastation wreaked when our coal mines were closed is a brutal reminder of what can happen when communities are silenced and disregarded in the process of change. Never again.
“Our energy system needs to change, but it cannot be workers who pay the price. So just as the US GI Bill gave education, housing and income support to every unemployed veteran returning from the Second World War, the next Labour government will guarantee that if anyone is displaced by energy transition they will be: offered retraining, a new job on equivalent terms and conditions, covered by collective agreements, and fully supported in their housing and income needs through transition.
On the Conservatives’ environmental record, Jeremy Corbyn will say:
“Nobody is fooled by Michael Gove’s reinvention of himself as an eco-warrior.
“Behind the rhetoric lies a trail of environmental destruction.
“This is a Government that has licensed fracking, declared a moratorium on renewable levies, while massively subsidising fossil fuels, dithered over tidal, held back onshore wind, u-turned on making all new homes zero carbon and is failing to take the necessary measures to meet our legal commitments to reduce CO2 emissions.”
Ends
Notes to editors
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