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The Northern Ireland Green New Deal - 'Accepting the Challenge, Promoting the Future'

3 November 2009

Members of the Northern Ireland Green New Deal Group discuss the opportunities for economic recovery and social and environmental enhancement found within such a package for Northern Ireland.

In the eyes of many the Executive in Northern Ireland is in an unenviable position.  Indeed, at first sight it may appear that it is constrained in what it can do to arrest rising unemployment, much less restore employment to previous levels. Yet while macro-economic policy is reserved to Westminster, key policy levers—industrial and energy policy, education and training, the environment and social policy—are in devolved hands.  

Jim Kitchen, Head of the Sustainable Development Commission in Northern Ireland believes that many diverse sectors in Northern Ireland can make common cause in providing ideas and solutions that can be implemented locally: 

“It is crucial that all the sectors involved in these areas in Northern Ireland - public and private, community and voluntary - work together to provide solutions that will help our elected representatives, benefit the entire community, kick start the local economy, and secure the transition to a more stable, low carbon economic future.  These are common goals, non party political, and locally achievable.  A coalition working together on these principles could make a positive contribution to society, the economy, and the environment.” 

The Northern Ireland Green New Deal Group is made up of such a coalition.  Using the skills and pooling the expertise of a number of different groups at a local level it hopes to act as an aide to government and policy makers here.  Nigel Smyth, Director of the CBI in Northern Ireland is clear about the need for and value of the group;  

“A real opportunity exists for the Executive in Northern Ireland to promote sustainability through a Green New Deal and help Ministers achieve the goals they set out in their Programme for Government.  This will not only help the transition to a low carbon economy in the coming years, but will also create employment now, reduce fuel poverty now, tackle social inequalities now, and lay the foundation for a new generation of innovative, exciting and world leading businesses in Northern Ireland. 

“The vast range of experience, the talent available, and the tradition of innovation represented by the people who contribute to the Northern Ireland Green New Deal Group make it an exciting and credible driver for assisting with economic recovery.  The discussions it is having and the recommendations that it will make in a number of key areas should have a real and positive impact on thousands of families on the ground across Northern Ireland.”   

The main overarching goals of the Northern Ireland Green new deal are to: 

Ø       Refurbish tens of thousands of existing homes with full insulation and renewable energy.

Ø      Transform the energy performance of public and commercial buildings.

Ø      ‘Decarbonise’, regionalise and localise the supplies of both electricity and heat through large-scale renewables, micro-generation and using fossil fuels more efficiently.

Ø       Create thousands of ‘green collar’ jobs, employing high- and lower-skilled workers to implement this vast systematic reconstruction programme creating around 24,000 new jobs.

Ø       Transform our transport system to be fit for purpose in the coming era of high oil and carbon prices by providing a real public transport choice for everyone.  

Detailed papers on each of these key areas are currently being prepared by members of the Green New Deal Group.  These will form the basis of a comprehensive plan with common goals and committed actions. 

» Read the Northern Ireland Green New Deal proposal

Summing up Peter Bunting, Assistant General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions emphasised the social impacts of the group’s recommendations; 

“In recent weeks the Green New Deal Group has made presentations to a number of governmental and non governmental bodies.  Real traction in a number of areas is being gained.   

“The benefits of investing now in these options are clear.  Not only will they make a fundamental contribution to the development of a low carbon economy, they will also create jobs quickly and in places that matter across Northern Ireland.  They will also reduce inequality, particularly by tackling the root causes of fuel poverty and poor access to public transport.  These are the common goals that we all can agree on, the strategies that we can all focus on, and the outcomes that we can all deliver on.”

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