"A missed opportunity" - climate scientist left disappointed by Tata Steel job losses
The spokesperson from Greenpeace told us decarbonisation shouldn't come with job losses
Last updated 23rd Jan 2024
The chief scientist for Greenpeace, Dr Doug Parr has described the decarbonisation of the Tata steelworks in Port Talbot as a "missed opportunity" that shouldn't have come with job losses.
Tata Steel last week announced it is cutting 2,800 jobs across the UK and will also close both blast furnaces.
The company say the move will reduce Welsh carbon emissions by 20% and UK emissions by 1.5%.
Dr Parr has agreed the move is definitely more sustainable and will significantly reduce emissions but unions should have been better consulted.
"In the transition to a greener economy - it's got to be fair, it's got to be just," Dr Parr said, "it's got to be reasonable for the people involved in high carbon industries.
"It's really not the way to do the transition to green technology that we need to undertake because we don't think that moving to clean steel production should be accompanied by the type of job losses that this entails.
"It does feel like a missed opportunity to go further and be fairer to the people involved in the steel works and the people in the wider community of Port Talbot.
"Workers should have a voice - we've talked with workers and there is recognition and an appetite that change needs to happen.
"We could, in the UK, have a new lease of life for clean steel production that takes advantage of the skills and infrastructure at Port Talbot."
Tata say they worked with unions and spent months seriously considering their suggestions, but ultimately there was no other feasible alternative.
The company has been losing more than one million pounds a day and was running a plant that was unsustainable both financially and environmentally.
A UK government spokesperson said: "Port Talbot is currently the UK’s largest single industrial carbon emitter.
"This steel plant was losing over £1m a day, putting it at risk of closure and threatening 8,000 jobs in South Wales and thousands more in the wider supply chain.
"The Government’s unprecedented £500m grant as part of the £1.25bn investment by Tata Steel will build a new Electric Arc Furnace that protects thousands of long-term jobs, as well as delivering a much greener way of producing steel, cutting carbon emissions in Wales by 22 per cent."