Solution - wind energy
The UK's wind and wave power resource is unrivalled in Europe and could provide over three times the UK's electricity needs. Our future lies in these energy sources if we are to prevent catastrophic climate change. As economics drive big oil to invest elsewhere in the world, and UK fields mature the government must turn its attention to renewable energy.
Thousands of jobs are haemorrhaging from the UK offshore oil and gas industry as the UK's offshore oil industry declines. In contrast the renewable energy industry is at the beginning of a growth explosion - the global wind industry is expanding as fast as the mobile phone industry.
A target of meeting just 10 per cent of the UK's electricity from offshore wind could create around 36,000 jobs. These jobs require the same engineering and fabrication skills that, until recently, have serviced the oil industry.
But while other countries seize the environmental and economic potential of renewable energy, the UK government continues to instead prop up the dinosaurs of the oil industry. This not only threatens the climate, it means that manufacturing jobs will go elsewhere. Its time for the UK to start licensing offshore wind and wave power, not for oil exploration.
