Several trade unions and 65 climate groups joined forces to call for £1.9 billion in emergency funding for North Sea workers ahead of the British Government’s spending review.

The organisations held a rally outside Parliament in London this week to demand chancellor Rachel Reeves provides more support for oil and gas workers so they can make the transition into green jobs.

Of the £1.9 billion, the coalition says £1.1 billion a year should go to developing permanent, local jobs in public and community-owned manufacturing.

Refinery

It added that a further £440 million of furthering investment each year should go to ports and £355 million per year should go to developing a dedicated training fund for offshore oil and gas workers with match-funding from industry.

The groups also argued that oil and gas companies consistently fail to invest in renewable energy jobs and retraining for their workers as they prioritise shareholder profits and cut or offshore jobs that should stay in Britain.

It comes as recent job losses at the Scunthorpe steel plant in North Lincolnshire, the Tata steel plant in Port Talbot, Wales, and the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland have spurred a national debate about a just transition for workforces and communities in high-emitting sectors.

Mel Evans, climate team leader at Greenpeace UK, said: “It’s vital that we don’t leave oil and gas workers’ future in the hands of private companies who put their profits above workers’ security and the climate time and time again.

Transition

“That’s why Rachel Reeves must commit to this emergency package of funding to protect workers and their communities. If she fails to act, she leaves their livelihoods at the mercy of greedy oil bosses and will undermine community confidence in the transition to renewable energy.”

Claire Peden, a Unite the Union campaign team lead, said: “The UK government must deliver a real, robust plan that guarantees good, secure jobs for oil and gas workers as part of the energy transition. So far, that promise hasn’t materialised, yet 30,000 jobs are at risk by 2030.

“Climate change is an urgent crisis, but it must not be working people who bear the brunt. A just transition needs to be a workers’ transition: no one must be left behind.”

Ruby Earle, worker transition lead at Platform, said: “Today, unions and climate campaigners are sending a clear message to the chancellor.

Workers

“We need urgent public investment that creates permanent, unionised renewable energy jobs and supports the country’s oil and gas workers to move into them. Multinationals have held us to ransom for too long.

“It’s time we give workers and communities a real stake in our energy industry.”

Besides Greenpeace, Unite and Platform, the coalition includes the National Union of Rail and Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), Aberdeen’s Trades Union Councils and 65 climate groups including Uplift, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Oil Change International and Extinction Rebellion.

The PA news agency has contacted the Treasury for comment.

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Rebecca Speare-Cole is the PA sustainability reporter.