INVESTMENT into green infrastructure could not only replace all Monmouthshire jobs permanently lost in the constituency due to Covid-19, but also provide a further 1,306 jobs within just two years according to research and analysis from Green New Deal UK.

Energy, research and development, digital infrastructure and social care are the other areas for potential green investment.

Green New Deal UK claim this trend is reflected in the region, with the potential for a net 23,271 jobs to be created in Wales over the next two years.

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Across the wider UK, government and private investment in green infrastructure, energy, research and development (R&D), digital infrastructure and social care could create over 1.2 million green jobs within just two years and over 2.7 million jobs in ten years.

Green New Deal UK is an independently registered non-profit organisation that "campaigns for a Green New Deal in the UK, providing an ‘organising hub’ to facilitate the efforts of ordinary people around the country who want to help campaign for change".

In March, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) found that despite the worsening climate crisis and growing pandemic-induced unemployment, the UK's green workforce actually shrank between 2014 and 2019, falling from 235,900 in 2014 to 202,100 in 2019.

Other analysis shows that permanent Covid-19 job losses nationally are expected to reach nearly a million (992,757) in two years and nearly two million (1,985,513) job losses over ten years. According to Green New Deal UK, all of these permanent job losses could be replaced with green jobs in just two years.

Hannah Martin, co-executive director of Green New Deal UK, said: “Every day people are losing their jobs and struggling to find work due to Covid-19.

"At a time when we need to rapidly decarbonise our economy and build resilient future industries which will allow people and planet to prosper, having so many people out of work makes no sense.

“We need to broaden our understanding of what makes a job green. A truly green economy is so much more than wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles - it is an army of retrofitters, carers, bike couriers and teachers, up and down the country, all working towards transforming our economy.”