WALES Green Party has congratulated Plaid Cymru for following in its footsteps with the ‘Green New Deal’ announced by the Welsh nationalist party.
Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood announced a package of environmental measures designed to create manufacturing jobs, increase renewable energy production, and improve home energy efficiency.
At the party’s conference in Brecon, she said it would: ‘Aim to provide skills, work, hope and opportunity for young people, building resilience into the economy and weaning Wales off our addiction to oil.’
Wales Green Party leader Pippa Bartolotti welcomed the announcement, saying it signals a shift towards Green policy priorities.
She said: ‘We support Plaid Cymru for following up on our own Green New Deal and the One Million Climate Jobs, both of which have been fully costed, are achievable, and urgently needed.’
Ms Woods also criticised the Coalition government – or the ‘heads of UK Plc’. She said: ‘The coalition has used the economic crisis as an excuse to attack the Welfare State. We must work to strengthen the economy.’
But Ms Bartolotti argued Wales must go even further than Plaid Cymru suggests.
She said: ‘More than a quarter of Welsh people are employed in the public sector. This make Wales the single most vulnerable community to the ideologically driven cuts forced on us by Westminster.
‘Talent in Wales is being wasted, and the hopes of a generation dashed because money is going straight into the pockets of the banks and not being made available to support small businesses. The struggling indigenous SME sector in Wales should be the job creators and innovators of our time, and urgently need support.
‘When nurses, and other workers bringing us the vital services on which we all depend are now £124 a month worse off than their English counterparts, it’s time for a total rethink of government strategy.
‘The Welsh Government must wake up and put the future hopes and needs of the people of Wales firmly in the forefront.
‘Wales Green Party gives absolute priority to the creation of extra jobs and training places which would address our employment and environmental security.’