As youth unemployment rises, an issue that has affected young people in the Asian community and other communes, an expert at Birmingham City University urges the Chancellor George Osbourne to look to the West Midlands for inspiration – where the green roots of recovery could potentially be driven by the green economy.
Birmingham City University is a pioneer in green technology – such as sustainable fuel – and this work is attracting backing from national and regional partners to help support a green economy with the potential to create 55,000 jobs in Birmingham.
“Birmingham City University has already showcased its ground-breaking work to both partners in the Coalition Government. Therefore, I would remind the Chancellor George Osborne that the best chance of encouraging the green shoots of recovery is by investing in the green economy,“ said Dr Peter Rayson, Associate Dean at the University’s Faculty of Technology, Engineering and the Environment.
The University’s work in developing technologies to support sustainability has attracted the attention of Prime Minister, David Cameron.
Dr Rayson said, “This work has both impressed the Prime Minister, on a fact-finding tour of the city, as well as policy-makers attending the annual Liberal Democrat conference hosted in the Birmingham this autumn.”
But the Dean is also certain that being environmentally friendly will produce a welcome by-product in the economy.
“Both our economy and the environment are currently facing big challenges – but by finding solutions to safeguard our environment we are, at the same time, creating new types of businesses and potentially thousands of new jobs. That is a win-win situation, which I believe the Chancellor would recognise and welcome.”
Birmingham City Council announced that they plan to invest £760million in a green energy initiative to reduce the city’s carbon footprint by 60 per cent by 2026 – and also help kick-start the regional economy by developing ‘green manufacturing’ in the West Midlands.
If successful it is estimated that 55,000 jobs could be directly generated by the initiative, from installation engineers, to manufacturers and designers.
