Creating thousands of green jobs could not only help the UK slash its CO₂ emissions, but investment in a new low carbon workforce could also limit the length and severity of the current recession, says the TUC in the latest of its Touchstone pamphlets published today (Thursday).

But the union organisation warns against the Government taking a back seat and leaving it to the market to set the pace of transition to a green economy. In Unlocking Green Enterprise: A Low Carbon Strategy for the UK Economy, the TUC says that it is up to ministers to create the conditions that will allow the UK to keep up with European competitors such as Denmark and Germany, who have developed much bigger green industries.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: ‘Everyone is talking about how the banks and irresponsible lending got the world into the economic mess it currently finds itself in, but not much is being said about how we lift ourselves out of the slowdown.

‘Government action now to invest in low carbon technologies and in the skills to develop a new green workforce should mean the current recession is much shorter and shallower for UK businesses.

‘But as our European neighbours show, it is only through governments – not the market – creating the right conditions, investing and changing laws where necessary, that a new green, sustainable workforce can emerge.

‘This will be one of the key demands of the Put People First coalition when it marches and rallies in London the weekend before the G20. On Saturday 28 March the alliance – which includes unions, plus a variety of green and faith groups – will tell world leaders that they must work together to build a fairer, more sustainable world with green jobs and a low carbon economy at the heart of recovery.’

February 26th, 2009 TUC