Caroline Lucas Southeast Green MEP and parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion constituency has appealed to unions and environmentalists to work more closely together.

Green politics must involve trade unions to ensure that the response to climate change advances social justice and equality, Caroline Lucas told activists at the GMB union's annual congress in Plymouth on Monday.

In a discussion on 'climate change and jobs,' Dr Lucas (pictured left) argued that the labour and environmental movements need to work together to achieve their goals, and that the Green Party's role is to unite the two.

Dr Lucas said:

"More secure, fulfilling jobs; stronger communities; social justice. That's the Green response to climate change. Panic, blame, and regressive taxes: that's Brown."

"Not only is the Green response more desirable, it's also the only one that can succeed. A zero-carbon world and a socially just one will happen together, or not at all.

"To achieve our goals, the labour movement and the environmental movement must realise that we need each other. The Green Party, with roots in both, is the ideal matchmaker.

"We need to work together to demand support for the renewables industry that could provide thousands of new, highly-skilled and secure jobs but is being neglected by government.

"We need to work together to make a warm, energy efficient home a right, and abolish fuel poverty. And we need to work together for an economy that exists for people, not the other way round."

Dr Lucas pointed to the renewable energy industry, showing that the economic changes required to tackle climate change also advance the goals of the trade union movement.

The European Commission has estimated that if the renewables industry grows as predicted 900,000 new jobs will be created by 2020. 15,000 would have been in the UK, but these are being jeopardised by the Labour government's preference for nuclear power, which creates few jobs.

The New Economics Foundation has shown that one terawatt of wind energy capacity generates up to 2,400 jobs, while nuclear manages just 75 jobs per terawatt.

Notes to editors:
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