Members of Hastings Trades Council with ‘Make Fossil Fuels History banner, after Tuesday’s vote. PHOTO: Divest East Sussex

Hastings Trades Council backs ‘Just Transition’ to fossil fuel free world

Hastings & District Trades Council unanimously passed a motion calling for a worker-led just transition to a fossil-fuel-free world at its meeting at the Isabel Blackman Centre in Hastings Old Town last night (18 July). Gabriel Carlyle reports.

Prior to the vote, Cllr Nigel Sinden (Labour, Silverhill) – a Retired Life Member of the GMB union – spoke movingly of what he felt were his generation’s historic responsibilities to address the climate emergency.

The motion calls for ‘no new fossil fuel projects in the UK now’, noting that ‘already, the amount of oil and gas in the UK’s existing fields will – if we burn it all – produce emissions greater than our share of what scientists say is safe for the planet.’

It also calls for ‘the phasing out of the fossil fuel industries accompanied by a Climate Jobs and Just Transition programme negotiated with workers in those industries and their Trade Unions‘, ‘Climate Reparations for the loss & damage already occurred’ and ‘legal mechanisms to end the funding of fossil fuel projects’.

Licences granted under Sunak ‘must be revoked’

While ‘welcom[ing] the recent announcement by the Labour Party that they will not authorise new oil and gas licensing in the North Sea and are against the opening of the West Cumbria Coal Mine’, the motion also noted that ‘it is key to develop detailed plans for a Just Transition in discussion with Trade Unions’ and that ‘any such licenses granted under the current government must be revoked by an incoming Labour government’.

Last month, Reuters reported that ‘[Keir] Starmer [had] reiterated a pledge to stop new oil and gas exploration licences in the North Sea, but said any licenses granted before the next election, such as for Equinor’s (EQNR.OL) proposed Rosebank field, would be respected.’

Offshore oil and gas workers back plan

The Friends of the Earth Scotland report on offshore workers’ demands for a just transition.

A recent survey by Friends of the Earth Scotland of over 1,000 offshore workers in the oil & gas industries found 90% support for a comprehensive plan, developed by offshore workers, for a just energy transition.

Measures in the plan include: removing barriers that make it harder for oil and gas workers to move into the renewable industry; ensuring safety, job security and fair pay across the energy industry; and sharing the benefits of our energy system fairly, with public investment in energy companies and communities.

The chair of Hastings Trades Council, Simon Hester, said: ‘This is an emergency. Politicians have failed us because they are in hock to the fossil fuel industry. The trade union movement has an historic responsibility to join with the climate justice movement to bring about the radical change we need. It’s urgent.’

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