It’s great news that last week it was decided that one of the 9 proposed wind farm sites has been given the go ahead. The ‘Hastings wind farm’ development will be built offshore between Brighton and Newhaven and will be made up of 100 turbines which together could provide up to 500 MW of electricity, enough power for 250,000 households.

It’s a good first step but the efforts must not stop there.

The UK gets less of its energy from renewable sources than almost any other EU country, and is one of the highest greenhouse gas emitters as a result. What we need is an energy infrastructure overhaul, with massive investment in diverse renewable sources to slash emissions. Energy efficiency is also crucial; a huge impact could be made with policies which truly help people cut their energy use. Providing free insulation for all homes – as we would do – is the sort of action we need right now.

These new jobs must be created in the UK rather than exported. Over 90% of the €2bn earmarked for the London Array wind farm – the world’s largest – is being spent abroad. This demonstrates the government’s failure to match its rhetoric on green jobs with action, as did its spectacular failure over Vestas. Renewable energy infrastructure will continue to be produced abroad unless the government starts supporting green industries here. Rather than allowing plants like Vestas to close, the government should be investing massively to support these new industries.

The Green Party’s general election campaign will prioritise public spending on job-creation projects to help tackle the recession as well as dramatically reducing CO2 emissions and strongly promote the Greens’ agenda of “fighting for a fairer society.”