EC President and UK Energy Secretary promise green jobs boom

Wed 22 September 2010 View all news

The Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, told the LibDem Party Conference that the new Green Deal should create up to 250,000 jobs in domestic energy efficiency and related areas. In a separate announcement the EC’s President Barroso said that the EU must create 3 million green jobs within a decade.

President José Manuel Barroso made his statement to the European Parliament which later adopted a resolution on green jobs.

Mr Barroso also reaffirmed the 2020 strategy’s focus on resource efficiency and sustainable growth. Mr Barroso said: "Different strands of policy on climate, energy, transport and the environment must be integrated into a coherent approach on resource efficiency and a low-carbon future."

Meanwhile, Conference delegates voted for a motion proposing that environmental taxes should rise to 10% of total UK Government revenue. In 2009, green taxes contributed 7.9% of total revenue. Under Labour, the amount of revenue categorised as coming from environmental taxes had fallen from 9.5% in 1997.

According to separate reports, however, the future viability of Mr Huhne’s Department, DECC, is under threat due to spending cuts in the upcoming review and up to 30 public bodies focusing on environmental issues could be axed.

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