The ETUC campaign will be launched at a conference organised by the ETUC on 5 and 6 October in London. Protecting the climate also means creating sustainable, quality jobs.
Finding solutions to climate disturbances is a huge challenge.
Climate protection cannot be tackled simply from the environmental point of view, it is also crucial to address the social issues if we do not want to see the inequalities exacerbated. This is why the ETUC is calling on decision-makers to pledge to address climate change by likewise taking account of the social and employment aspects.
Joël Decaillon, ETUC Confederal Secretary, has stated: ‘The ETUC believes that climate disturbances pose a major threat to our societies and our economies, and they will have a negative effect on the most vulnerable citizens and workers, in particular in the developing countries.
"We are launching a campaign today ahead of the Copenhagen Summit, to tackle climate disturbances in a global way, not merely from the environmental angle. The point is that it is essential for the decisions to be taken at Copenhagen to incorporate this social and human dimension. Ensuring a fair social transition means setting up proper social negotiations at every level with instruments for that negotiation process, the necessary funding, and new training to help in the transformation of employment.
"Only if we can do this can the anxieties and threats be transformed into opportunities to create sustainable, quality jobs and curb social inequalities. This will be the message that we shall be taking to Copenhagen. It will also be the subject of a study which we have carried out, and which we shall be presenting to the London conference on 5 and 6 October: ‘Climate disturbances, the new industrial policies and ways out of the crisis’.
Link to the study 'Climate disruptions, new industrial policies and ways out of the crisis' :http://www.etuc.org/a/6527
Link to the video 'The callenges of Climate Change' :http://www.etuc.org/a/6511
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) speaks with a single voice on behalf of the shared interests of Europe’s workers. It was founded in 1973 and currently represents 82 trade union organisations in 36 European countries as well as 12 sectoral federations.