Miliband: Olympics mentality needed to deliver 2030 decarbonisation target

Shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband said a Labour government would decarbonise the energy grid by 2030 by adopting a similar approach to delivering the Olympics in 2012.

If elected next month, Miliband said Labour would treat the decarbonisation of the grid like a “massive project” rather than an aspirational target.

He said this would sharpen focus and put the emphasis on delivery while outlining clear roles for public and private sectors.

Miliband added that he has already held conversations with National Infrastructure Commissioner chair Sir John Armitt about approaching the challenge in the same vein as the country delivered its Olympics infrastructure.

The shadow climate change minister was speaking at Renewable UK’s Global Offshore Wind conference  where he reiterated his party’s manifesto pledges.

In particular, Miliband doubled down on Labour’s pledge to have a clean energy grid by the end of this decade if it wins next month’s election.

He added that to have any chance of achieving the target the government – and the energy department – will have to take a stronger lead on upskilling the workforce to deliver the party’s climate ambitions.

“I think government has a much more important role than it is currently playing in making a proper estimate of the skills needs of the country, and how we’re going to meet them,” Milliband said. “There has to be an element of workforce planning. It’s not the government that’s going to do the actual training of the people or the detailed on the ground work, but we can’t just say, well, this is going to happen automatically,” he said.

He further laid out ambitions for his own department, if elected, to have a role in ensuring engagement in proper workforce planning, as well as listening to concerns from industry. He added that the energy department could take on a greater role in working with metro mayors and local authorities to identify skills gaps and opportunities.

Among Labour’s other manifesto pledges include promises to introduce “much tougher” regulation of the energy market, including automatic customer compensation for service failures.

The party says it will “ensure a much tougher system of regulation that puts consumers first and attracts the investment needed to cut bills”.

And it promises to strengthen Ofgem to ensure it can “hold companies to account for wrongdoing, require higher standards of performance, and ensure there is automatic customer compensation for failure”.