Green jobs can replace those lost in pandemic in East London

That was the same year incidentally that Sir Nicholas Stern’s prophetic report for the UK government advised that if we acted then, crisis could be averted and to delay would cost more.

Sir Nicholas’s words were largely ignored, as humanity continued consuming more and dashing like lemmings toward the cliff edge.

The avalanche of plastic, both on land and across oceans, offers a very good example of this process.

The political class have begun to stir, resulting in the Paris agreement in 2015. But as Greta Thurnberg points out, they then failed to deliver on those promises.

Covid has shown what a crisis really looks like and the mobilisation needed to counter it.

The Government has moved to invest in the development of green infrastructure - but is it too little, too late?

Following the 2008 financial crisis there were radical measures taken to kick start the economy. Among these were the feed in tariff scheme to encourage people to put solar panels on their roofs. There was a big take up.

Polluting cars were taken off the roads in their thousands. Then though came the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition.

Conservative leader David Cameron made much of his green credentials, being pictured famously with huskies in Greenland, but the empty promises were exposed once he got in office.

The feed in tariff and other progressive moves have been phased out by a series of Conservative governments.

The green economy is where the jobs, as well as the future of the planet, reside.

Wanstead Climate Action recently highlighted how green jobs could help replace jobs lost over the period of the pandemic. Thousands of jobs can be created in this sector in Redbridge and beyond across East London.

The climate crisis is on us. The pandemic offers an opportunity to take stock and reset the clock.

This means making real change in the way we live and work. Failure to so means lurching ever closer to that precipice.