Energy Secretary Ed Miliband will introduce an amendment to legislation to ensure there is no slavery in GB Energy’s supply chains.
It comes after ministers rejected an amendment to a bill last month that would have prevented that state-owned GB Energy spending money on solar panels where supply chains had “credible evidence of modern slavery”.
The production of solar panels in China’s Xinjiang region has been linked to the alleged exploitation of Uyghur Muslims.
[…]
A government source told the BBC since then “there has been an acknowledgement of the argument that GB Energy should be an industry leader”.
There has already been praise from the international community for the U-turn. Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, told the BBC: “I really salute the UK government’s decision.”
He said that the materials for green technology are important but “should really be produced in a socially and environmentally acceptable way”.
Labour MPs who have been calling for the change are seeing it as a victory.
[…]
With the right investment into production automation, and classifying energy generation as a national security factor, I could see us building our own at prices that make sense.
The real kicker I guess is going to be the supply of rare earths required.