{"id":139207,"date":"2025-04-24T07:35:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T04:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/uk-government-to-ban-use-of-slave-labour-solar-panels-by-new-state-owned-energy-company\/"},"modified":"2025-04-24T07:35:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T04:35:13","slug":"uk-government-to-ban-use-of-slave-labour-solar-panels-by-new-state-owned-energy-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/uk-government-to-ban-use-of-slave-labour-solar-panels-by-new-state-owned-energy-company\/","title":{"rendered":"UK government to ban use of \u2018slave labour\u2019 solar panels by new state-owned energy company"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139207\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>Campaigners have warned that Chinese slave labour is widespread throughout the renewables sector. Solar panels made with slave labour in China won\u2019t be used by the UK&#8217;s new state-owned energy company, the government announced today. GB Energy was launched by Labour in July, in a bid to boost renewables and lower energy bills, and will be formally established when the Great British Energy Bill is passed by Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>After weeks of debate on the issue, energy secretary Ed Miliband is introducing an amendment to the legislation to try and ensure GB Energy&#8217;s supply chains are free of slavery. \u201cUnfortunately, there\u2019s a problem right the way throughout the renewables sector with state-imposed forced labour in China,\u201d Luke de Pulford, executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac) told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme. \u201cThey have labour transfer schemes where the government conscripts, very often ethnic minorities, and forces them to work against their will, and sadly, many such workers are placed within renewable industry in China.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Around 45 per cent of the world\u2019s supply of polysilicon &#8211; a core component in solar panels &#8211; comes from China&#8217;s Xinjiang region. It is produced through the systemic exploitation of the Uyghur ethnic minority living here, according to an investigation by researchers at the UK\u2019s Sheffield Hallam University. Official Chinese government documents detail the \u201cplacement\u201d of 2.6 million \u201cminoritised\u201d citizens in jobs in farms and factories in Xinjiang and elsewhere through state-sponsored \u201csurplus labour\u201d and \u201clabour transfer\u201d initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>The 2021 report, In Broad Daylight, found significant evidence that \u201clabour transfers are deployed in the Uighur Region within an environment of unprecedented coercion, undergirded by the constant threat of re-education and internment. \u201cMany Indigenous workers are unable to refuse or walk away from these jobs, and thus the programmes are tantamount to forcible transfer of populations and enslavement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Eight countries in Europe use renewables for more than half of their heating and cooling needs<br \/>\nWorld surpasses 40% clean electricity with Europe leading as a &#8217;solar superpower&#8217;<br \/>\nDo the UK and EU use these solar panels? Although alternatives are emerging, almost all solar modules rely on polysilicon, which is extracted from mined quartz. The UK imports more than 40 per cent of its solar PV from China, according to HMRC data.<\/p>\n<p>Asked how difficult it will be for the government to increase its use of renewables without using Chinese slave labour, de Pulford acknowledged it will require \u201ca transition\u201d in order to \u201cdiversify\u201d solar supplies. \u201cBut it\u2019s not impossible and companies are, I think, slowly inching towards a better place \u2013 we have to find a better way of doing it, that doesn\u2019t mean that we have a green transition reliant upon Uyghur slavery,\u201d he told the BBC. Fatih Birol, leader of the International Energy Agency, told the broadcaster: &#8221;I really salute the UK government&#8217;s decision.&#8221; He added that the materials for green technology are important but &#8221;should really be produced in a socially and environmentally acceptable way&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The EU has previously taken steps to keep renewable components made with slave labour out of its supply chains. In November, the European Council moved to ban products in the Union market that are made using forced labour.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/green\/2025\/04\/23\/uk-government-to-ban-use-of-slave-labour-solar-panels-by-new-state-owned-energy-company\">Euronews<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/csr-news-en\/uk-government-to-ban-use-of-slave-labour-solar-panels-by-new-state-owned-energy-company\/\">UK government to ban use of \u2018slave labour\u2019 solar panels by new state-owned energy company<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[18626,555,579],"class_list":["post-139207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-slave-labour-solar-panels","tag-csr-news-en","tag-uk"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}