Reform UK’s climate denialism could devastate the very towns and cities they want to represent

Policy direction over the past 20 years has led to the creation of a world-leading offshore wind cluster on the Humber – with world-leading farms operated and maintained from Grimsby and ever longer blades built in Hull.

Two proud port communities that once vied for the title of the biggest UK fishing port, now unified in serving the biggest offshore wind farms. Proud to have a first to their name again, for too long having wallowed in the slow death by 1,000 fillet knife incisions from quota cuts and fishing exclusion zones of eras gone by.

‘Third generation unemployed fishermen’ became a thing when there was almost a badge of deprivation to be had and there was a sense that benefits culture had hit an all-time high. Remember the Skint TV series? Even Sacha Baron Cohen of Ali G fame had a pop with the movie Grimsby – filmed for the most part in Tilbury, Essex. This self-given label for pervading worklessness was all the more galling as so many had never stepped foot on a vessel. Now, well into a second decade of delivery on the Humber, aspirations have been raised. Mates and masters are required, engineers and technicians in their droves.

Now offshore wind has overflowed to the larger neighbouring commercial dock, the regional airport and other quays around the estuary and up and down the East Coast. All is backed up by expanding pockets of engineering and logistics.

It has created thousands of local jobs. People I went to school with, have previously worked with, played football and cricket with. The legacy of the maritime skills and infrastructure, and acute awareness of the need for immediacy – with a trawler in dock not earning – transferring to a turbine not spinning – wowed developers, and still does.

And the appetite has cascaded into education, with applications soaring for roles in the sector, be it offshore technicians or blade building. Reform UK say they want to work for the regions of the UK that have been ‘left behind’ by the Westminster elites, but their assault on renewables and outright climate denialism could destroy one of the few areas for genuine growth and development we have going for the Humber region. Their policy to tax renewables could decimate a thriving industry, putting thousands of jobs at risk.

Where wooden pontoons and jetties were falling into disrepair, if not the water themselves, multi-million pound investments have brought new infrastructure, new life and new opportunity to places like Grimsby and Hull.

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Dismissing the huge strides that have been taken, rowing back from a position of growth and actively sabotaging incentive and investment is not just reckless – it is economic vandalism. Reform UK is targeting the very sector that has brought optimism and economic renewal to these communities, giving weight to the argument that their rhetoric about supporting the ‘left behind’ is nothing more than a cynical ploy.

So too the mere fact it is a policy strand that they are proudly promoting, despite the devastating consequences. If Labour cedes to Reform as the Conservatives did to UKIP over the Brexit battleground, what message does that send out? We saw the damage done on the stock market when president Trump signed his executive orders pausing offshore wind development in the US.

For me it puts at risk realising the true economies of scale if we stunt development now, with Reform’s bluster directed against offshore wind ignoring how the price of natural gas-hiked electricity bills as war on Europe’s eastern front erupted. This weakens our energy security, leaving us more dependent on volatile fossil fuel markets instead of strengthening a domestic industry that provides stable and reliable power.

For Reform UK, from their city of London press conference platform, the UK’s efforts are a drop in the ocean when it comes to slowing down climate change and carbon abatement. But even if they refuse to acknowledge our global responsibility – having led the industrial revolution and now intent on leading on industrial decarbonisation – are they even considering the economic and industrial consequences? Reneging on commitments now championed for years, from Kyoto to Paris, Davos and beyond, would not just be an environmental failure – it would be a catastrophic self-sabotage of the UK’s industrial future.

For while offshore wind has given the Humber its pride back, it has also shone a light on what needs to be done to remove the unenviable title of Britain’s most carbon-intensive industrial cluster – the number one hub for pollution. It is high time to blow that away too, with carbon capture and hydrogen-switching advanced opportunities to seize.

Reform UK’s policies don’t just threaten progress – they threaten the very fabric of our economic and industrial resurgence. The Humber has fought too hard to get back on the front foot to be dragged backwards again.

David Laister is the director of Humber Marine and Renewables.

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