TUC worries about jobs and skills for new energy supply

The TUC is concerned that we won't have the capacity to build whatever the energy review decides we need.

The Low Carbon Kid thinks they should instead be concerned that whatever solutions are arrived at creates the safest and most sustainable jobs for the British workforce. This is bound to be a mix of energy sources that concentrate on supply service agreements and decentralised supply, rather than centralised, capital-intensive ones like new nuclear power stations.

Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary, said: "The Government's ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions raise major questions about workforce and skills development. The UK needs to develop a whole range of new low carbon technologies. We will be raising with ministers the need to ensure that we have the capacity to develop and manage the new energy system this challenge throws up."

Certainly several studies have shown that there is a skills gap, and the construction industry is well employed by many PFI schemes. But Barber also needs to wise himself up a bit and get a grip on which technologies provide the most livelihoods.