The chart above is a list of demands from the UKs Wellbeing Economy Alliance. At least they have a list. What it means is not clear. After World War II, lots of rebuilding was required in Europe. It was an opportunity to build houses to better standards and build more modern factories and infrastructure. It might have been expensive, but they could "build back better". Building back today implies that infrastructure has been destroyed. But the COVID virus only affects people, not structures.
COVID lockdowns disrupted economies, but there is nothing destroyed that needs to be "rebuilt". We don't NEED a “Green New Deal”. Meanwhile, OECD says "build back better” includes 'alignment with long-term emission reduction goals, resilience to climate impacts, slowing biodiversity loss and increasing circularity of supply chains'.
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC)
and National Infrastructure Commission (NIC)
want:
More wind and solar farms
Insulating homes
Ban petrol and diesel cars
Heat pumps and hydrogen for heating homes
Tree planting and peatland restoration
Encourage walking and cycling
More public transport
This would cost a lot of money.
Where will this money come from?
From all the new 'green jobs?
No way.
The Scottish Government’s Low Carbon Economic strategy (2010) promised 130,000 green jobs by now. According to a study by the Scottish TUC last year, Broken Promises and Offshore Jobs, the actual number is 21,400, and falling.
The Moray East Windfarm example:
100 turbines off the coast of Caithness are being built by a consortium involving Portugal’s main energy firm EDPR, French utility Engie and Diamond Generating Europe, a subsidiary of Japanese firm Mitsubishi Corporation. The blades are being built by Danish company, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind – a joint venture between Vestas Wind Systems and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. MHI Vestas have a plant in the Isle of Wight that employs 300 people. Under the previous ownership of Vestas the Isle of Wight plant was closed in 2009, leading to the loss 425 jobs (and a high profile 18 day blockade by workers and activists). The wind turbine jackets are being handled by a ‘first tier’ Belgian procurement contractor called Deme. Deme awarded the contract for 45 jackets to Lamprell – a company in the United Arab Emirates. Lamprell made a $98m loss on its contract for 60 jackets for Scottish Power Renewables, developer of the East Anglia One wind array, suggesting it does not have a great track record in wind turbine jackets.
Most of the manufacturing work is not in Scotland. But a few Scottish workers will be left with maintenance jobs. The lithium and copper mining business in Chile is booming, however, and solar panel and battery factories in China are never out of work !