Coinciding with
the Leap Manifesto, a global conference on climate jobs shows how the labour
movement around the world can help fight climate change and inequality.
The Leap
Manifesto includes a clear call for climate jobs: “A
leap to a non-polluting economy creates countless openings for similar multiple
‘wins.’ We want a universal program to
build energy efficient homes, and retrofit existing housing, ensuring that the
lowest income communities and neighbourhoods will benefit first and
receive job training and opportunities that reduce poverty over the long term. We want training and other resources for
workers in carbon-intensive jobs, ensuring they are fully able to take part in
the clean energy economy. This transition should involve the democratic
participation of workers themselves. High-speed
rail powered by just renewables and affordable public transit can unite every
community in this country – in place of more cars, pipelines and
exploding trains that endanger and divide us.”
Coinciding with the Leap Manifesto,
trade union activists gathered in Paris for a global union climate conference—including
speakers from Europe, Africa, Asia and North America. This gathering also produced a new report, Global
Climate Jobs, and British climate
activist Jonathan Neale summarizes the scale and urgency: “We have to stop
climate change, and we have to do it quickly. To do it, we will need 120
million new jobs globally for at least twenty years…It is not realistic to wait
for the market to ‘create’ those jobs. The scale of what needs doing is too
big, and we need action quickly. Instead, we will need massive government
programs in each country.” After reviewing the scale of global emission
reductions required, and the political challenge of confronting extractivist
industries and government austerity, the report gives a glimpse of climate
jobs campaigns from around the world.
Global Climate Jobs
Writing from
Canada, Tony Clarke describes the emergence of the Green Economy Network and their campaigns
on renewable energy, green buildings and public transit. As he explains, “Today
we urgently need ‘system change’ not ‘climate change.’ As a society, we can no
longer afford an economic model that treats the natural environment and human
beings as disposable goods. Instead we must start to collectively build a new
economy, one based on much more sustainable modes of production and consumption
while transforming the economic and social inequalities that plague and
overburden society…These climate jobs provide more secure forms of employment
that would ensure greater social equity for marginalized peoples such as the
unemployed and working poor, including Indigenous peoples and people of
colour.”
Activists in
South Africa have collected 100,000 signatures for their One Million Climate Jobs Campaign to
address both the climate crisis and the high levels of unemployment and
inequality. As Sandra van Neikerk explains, “By placing the
interests of workers and the poor at the forefront of strategies to combat
climate change, we can simultaneously halt climate change and address our job
bloodbath.”
In South Africa
the climate jobs campaign is taking on the mining corporations, whereas in
Norway the campaign is challenging the government’s greenwashing of oil and
gas. Through a campaign of trade unions, environmental organizations and the
Norwegian Church, there’s a growing movement demanding 50,000 jobs in offshore
wind.
New York
experienced the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, the inspiration of the People’s
Climate March, and has the challenge of reducing energy demand from the million
buildings that form the city’s iconic skyline. There have also been lessons
from recent campaigns, as J Mijin Cha, Josh Kellerman and Lara Skinner explain:
“The grassroots environmental movement forced NY State Governor Cuomo to ban
fracking in 2014. The Governor was reluctant to ban fracking because many
communities in upstate NY are economically depressed with high rates of
unemployment and poverty, and the gas industry argued fracking would produce
thousands of new jobs. Once Governor Cuomo banned fracking, it became more
important politically for social movements in NY to present a viable,
alternative jobs plan, one based on creating good union jobs, tackling the
climate crisis, and strengthening NY communities.”
Writing from
Britain, Tabitha Spence explains the growth of the Campaign Against Climate Change, and its
trade union group, to make the most of Britain’s bad weather: “Britain has the
advantage of famously bad weather, which means enormous wind resources, especially
offshore in the North Sea. It would take about 400,000 jobs to set up onshore
and offshore wind turbine systems, and wave and tidal power, all connected to a
national and international grid.”
Change the politics, not the climate
She also explains
the growing network supporting climate jobs, including political support: “We
started with unions. While we continue gaining even broader support of unions
and union members, today we are also working to gain the support of
environmental groups, NGOs, and direct action groups. We have the support of
the Green Party, and are building support in Labour, the largest opposition
party.”
This goal
recently received a boost from Labour’s new leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who supports
the call for climate jobs—which makes it all the more frustrating that no major
political party in Canada will do the same. Author and NDP candidate Linda McQuaig early on in the federal election campaign echoed the
climate science that “a
lot of the oil sands oil may have to stay in the ground if we’re going to meet
our climate change targets.” Conservatives and media commentators attacked
her for ignoring workers, when climate jobs provide far more and far better
work than the oil and gas industry.
The refusal of
the federal election to discuss climate job alternatives reflects governments
around the world sleepwalking into the climate crisis. As the Global Climate
Jobs report notes, “Unlike the build-up
to the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009, there is a much broader understanding
across the world that world leaders will not deliver in Paris this year…But the
early success of the campaigns reported on in this booklet, also demonstrates
the popularity and power of the idea of climate jobs.”
It’s clear that
climate justice can’t fit in the Parliamentary ballot box, and movements will
need to challenge whoever is elected next month to respect Indigenous rights,
reduce emissions and support climate job alternatives. But there’s still time
to demand the parties reflect the climate justice movement, and support
candidates who do.
Sign the Leap Manifesto and the Greenpeace petition: change
the politics, not the climate
Join the September 29 keynote panel Linda McQuaig is right:
keep the tar sands in the ground
