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Government outlines funding for 9,000 training courses for green home workers.
The UK Government has unveiled the winners of a £9.2m training scheme to upskill workers in the energy, heating and buildings sectors to help with the installations of clean heating and energy efficiency solutions for homes.
The Government has confirmed the winners of the Home Decarbonisation Skills Training competition. The £9.2m funding offers subsidised or free training for existing or new workers in sectors that can help with household energy efficiency.
The new funding will provide training for 8,900 courses across accredited centres in England. It will primarily focus on heat pump and energy efficiency installers.
The funding is available to existing workers in the sector who want to retain or upskill, as well as entry-level workers.
The training will be delivered until 31 March 2023. It builds on the 2021 funding phase for the same competition, which saw £6m in Government spending used for almost 7,000 training opportunities.
Business and Energy Minister Lord Callanan said: “The green energy sector is driving growth and creating jobs right across the country, and this funding will make sure we have enough tradespeople trained up and able to take advantage of these opportunities.
Government outlines funding for 9,000 training courses for green home workers
Government urged to implement Core Environmental Standards for food imports and trade.
A new report from WWF has urged the Government to introduce a set of Core Environmental Standards (CES) to cover all imports and trade deals, to ensure UK farmers aren’t undermined and that the UK reduces the chance of incentivising harming environmental practices overseas.
The new report from WWF, published on Thursday (1 December) recommends that the Government creates a CES that would apply to food imports from overseas. The aim of the CES is to ensure that imports are aligned with existing standards for UK farmers, which in turn would reduce the risk that imports come from harmful environmental practices overseas.
“We import almost half the food we consume in the UK, yet we have no standards that cover the environmental impact of its production”, the report states. “This risks the UK giving incentives to environmentally harmful practices overseas and undermining UK producers, especially as trade deals are signed, reducing tariffs and quotas for agri-food imports without any environmental standards or conditions.”
Government urged to implement Core Environmental Standards for food imports and trade
Natural England chair calls for Defra not to scrap nature-friendly farming.
Natural England chair Tony Juniper has urged the Government not to scrap nature-friendly funding for UK farmers, following reports that the flagship Environmental Land Management (ELM) could be replaced.
Under the Agriculture Bill, Defra launched the Basic Payment Scheme under the ELM package, as well as the Local Nature Recovery scheme and Landscape Recovery scheme. The former will pay farmers for conserving and restoring soils and grasslands, while the latter pair cover actions that deliver biodiversity gain.
Farmers across the UK are still waiting on clarity from Defra as to whether further phases of the ELM will be rolled out following its introduction earlier this year. During the initial launch, green groups warned that the payment system falls short of what is needed to support farmers.
The ELM replaces the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and was meant to reward farmers financially if they improved soil health, delivered better water quality and created measures to reduce flooding.
Defra wants around 70% of farmers in England to be signed up to the ELM by 2028, following the end of the transition period.
Natural England chair calls for Defra not to scrap nature-friendly farming
Germany confirms final details for €99bn energy support scheme.
The German government agreed on the final details of its flagship energy support scheme to reduce energy bills for households and businesses, with finance coming from a tax on windfall profits made by energy companies.
Germany’s €200bn aid programme for the energy price crisis has sparked outrage from EU countries who warned it risked triggering a subsidy race that only Berlin could win.
On Friday (25 November), the German federal government finally agreed on the final details of the scheme that will reduce gas, heat and electricity prices for consumers and industry alike.
“The price brakes for gas, electricity and district heating are coming. We are capping the energy price so that citizens can cope with the new prices and the challenges,” explained Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Germany’s energy support measures that will de-facto come into effect on 1 January 2023 and last until April 2024 come with a hefty price tag: €99bn, split between €56bn to subsidise fossil gas as well as district heat and €43bn for electricity.
They will be applied retroactively, as the laws will not come into effect until March 2023 due to the complexities of legally waterproofing them and upholding their larger goal: the scheme must ensure that gas savings are at a minimum of 20% compared to last year.
Germany confirms final details for €99bn energy support scheme