The British government claims that a new renewable energy company belonging to the State will not be authorized to obtain solar panels manufactured with Chinese slave work.
The government announced Wednesday that it would introduce an amendment to ensure that the planned company, Great British Energy, would not have slavery in its supply chains.
China is the dominant global player in the renewable energy market, including solar energy. The BBC has cited customs data that Great Britain imports more than 40% of its solar photovoltaics from China.
A key element is polysilicon from the Xinjiang region in the far west of China, where the Uighur Muslims have been faced with persecution, including the use of their forced work.
In 2021, the American Labor Department scored Polysilicon as a product made with forced work in China in violation of international standards.
The British government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer had initially rejected an amendment to the Great British Energy Bill to include provisions aimed at preventing the purchase of solar panels made with work by slaves.
However, Wednesday, he changed track.
“British great energy will act to guarantee supply chains exempt from forced work, under an amendment presented by the government today,” the Ministry of Energy Security said in a press release.
He said that a new measure in the bill “will allow the company to ensure that forced work does not take place in its activities or supply chains”.
The conservative party of the opposition described him as a “humiliating turn” for Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, but he was also supported by certain members of the Labor Party in power.
Rahima Mahmut, executive director of the Stop Stop Uyghur Genocide activist group, praised the amendment, displaying on X that it was a “massive step towards justice”.
Forced labor is on a long list of serious human rights problems that have been documented at
China denies violations of rights.
Edited by Mat Pennington.