Government must prioritise heat pump installation to tackle climate chaos | Letter

Colin Hines says Andy Burnham’s focus should be on drastically cutting fossil fuel use in a way that reduces bills and generates secure jobs

It is hardly surprising that many who were optimistic and supportive of Andy Burnham becoming prime minister, but who also prioritised tackling climate chaos, are becoming increasingly unsure about him, given his tardiness in emphasising this threat as an overriding policy objective ( Labour ‘could lose up to 50 seats’ to Greens if new drilling in North Sea approved, 19 August ).

One of the problems he faces is that the political debate around energy is obsessed with relatively short-term fossil fuel supplies. Instead, the focus should be on drastically and rapidly cutting fossil fuel use in a way that reduces bills and generates secure jobs through a devolved energy programme for every postcode.

Key to this must be a public commitment to rapidly “get off gas”. This must prioritise a rapid nationwide programme of increasing the installation of heat and cooling pumps in all properties and making buildings more energy-efficient.

An immediate source of labour could come from giving work to existing workers made redundant by Keir Starmer’s ill-thought-out policy to cut energy bills by dropping investment in energy saving. Nothing concrete was put in its place and Andrew Warren, chair of the British Energy Efficiency Federation, has pointed out that a staggering 12,100 skilled professionals have already been made redundant, with a further 80,000 estimated to be made redundant in the next 12 months.

A final social advantage to this approach would be that the future labour force could come from apprenticeships that create the skilled workers required and would help tackle today’s youth unemployment problem. Colin Hines Convener, Green New Deal Group