Let's make sure our greenhouse emissions go down, shall we?
As it stands, under the new EU 2020 targets, all European countries taking part in the scheme are meant to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by up to 20% by the year 2020. In the UK, according to the targets published on Europa.Eu, the UK is required to cut our CO2 emissions by 16%, while also ensuring that our use of renewable energy resources increases by 15%.
As we outlined in a different blog post, steps are already being taken to complete this process by launching the Green Deal, a new incentive that’ll up the accessibility of renewable energy resources. That’s not enough though, and now four Sector Skills Councils are uniting together to hopefully make a plan to generate the workforce needed to make the EU 2020 target a reality in the UK.
Asset Skills, CITB-Construction Skills, Energy and Utility Skills and SummitSkills intend to host a number of consultation meeting across September and October designed to create a comprehensive programme that will make sure that the UK has a large number of trained workers who are proficient in making the country much more energy efficient.
The meetings have been created as a result of many organisations apparently feeling like that there isn’t enough knowledge and competent workforce to cover the 2020 plans.
Sarah Bentley, Chief Executive of Asset Skills, said: "There is a clear lack of knowledge and confidence among employers about the green agenda and how it will affect their workforce. Industry and consumers need to be made more aware, while new specialist training needs to be developed in different areas of energy efficiency."
Anyone interested in attending the talks and potentially affecting the future of the UK’s energy efficiency programme can nominate a representative from an organisation by emailing jacqui.chivers@cskills.org or by calling Build Up Skills on 08448 549 004.
The events are taking place on the following dates in the following locations:
South Employers: London, 24 September (10.30 – 13.00)
North Employers: Leeds, 1 October (10.45-13.00)
Midlands Employers: Birmingham, 2 October (10.45-13.00)
