Up for Grabs – We Can Pay For It UK
The UP FOR GRABS factsheet shows exactly how the United Kingdom can raise the public funds needed to pay for a fair and orderly transition of North Sea oil and gas workers as part of the green energy transition. The government could mobilise GBP 6.7 billion per year through a series of readily available measures that could fund an emergency package of support for North Sea workers.
Download the UP FOR GRABS factsheet that shows exactly how the United Kingdom can raise the public funds needed to pay for a fair and orderly transition of North Sea oil and gas workers as part of the green energy transition. The government could mobilise GBP 6.7 billion per year through a series of readily available measures that could fund an emergency package of support for North Sea workers.
The Labour Party promised to make Britain a clean energy superpower, “rebuilding the strength of our industrial heartlands and coastal communities, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs” during the election. As yet they have not delivered, but they still can. UP FOR GRABS: How to raise over £6 billion to support a just transition for North Sea workers.
The £6.7 billion figure is far from exhaustive. It is possible for the government to raise these funds as demonstrated by the mobilisation of £310-410 billion during the covid crisis.
The current situation for North Sea workers, with increasingly insecure working conditions and redundancy processes already underway as the basin declines, is a crisis. The pace and ambition of current policy is not enough to support a just transition, and leaves workers at the mercy of profit-driven private oil and gas companies that don’t care about protecting or supporting workers.
The government must use the upcoming Comprehensive Spending Review to activate the below measures and unlock public money to support workers through an emergency package of £1.9 billion per year until 2030. This should go toward:
- £1.1 billion per year to develop permanent, local jobs in public and community-owned wind manufacturing;
- £440 million of further investment each year for ports to support the buildout of offshore wind, so the government can take equity stakes in port upgrades as critical national infrastructure;
- £355 million per year to develop a dedicated training fund for offshore oil and gas workers.
To access more work like this from OCI, check out our We Can Pay For It factsheet from 2024 that shows there is no shortage of public money available for rich countries to pay their fair share on fair terms for climate action at home and abroad.