Tories need to change their green tune to play well in much-needed constituencies

Ted Christie-Miller, our new Policy Fellow at Onward, writes for CityAM about the need for Conservatives to prioritise their net zero commitments as we head towards the next election. He writes:

“Going big on green jobs is crucial if the Conservatives are to straddle the gap between Wycombe and Workington. At the moment, the people with the most to gain from green jobs are also the most hostile to the transition. The North East is strongly against paying higher prices for the green transition. Yet it is one of the key regions for industrial growth for net zero, with the concentration of new projects such as the East Coast cluster being located there. 

Honing this messaging will be important if climate is to be weaponized as an election winning platform. Voters will also need to see genuine change before the next election if they are to be won over. This is no easy win, given that most of the projects in renewables, carbon capture and hydrogen will not bear fruit until 2025 at the earliest. People will not feel the tide of well-paid jobs – green jobs are on average 30 per cent better paid than “brown” jobs – before they go to the ballot boxes.” 

You can read the full article here.