unions and climate change
TRANSCRIPT
Climate Change:Trade Unions and the “Paris Contradiction”
Sean SweeneyGLI New YorkGLI SS, July 6, 2016
Health impacts of fossil fuel use: 7.2 million premature deaths in 2012 (WHO)
Air-pocalypse
The Paris Accord – Dec. 2015
Threshold: “well below 2 degrees Celsius”
Energy Information Agency (US) 2015
Unions staying “on message”
Green Jobs
Decent Work
Just Transition
These policies deserve to be supported… but they cannot resolve the “Paris Contradiction”
International trade union bodies have largely accepted pro-market ideas
World Bank ILO
Unions have tried to be constructive….
But the ‘social dialogue’ approach has failed
Many unions seek a new path
New strategy, and program – that can integrate class with climate – for ‘socioecological’ transformation
ITF
“A Whole Economy Approach”
The union-based “Climate Jobs”
“Climate Jobs” campaigns are an important part of this new approach
If we can’t control the energy system – we won’t be able to stabilize the climate
