Tackling climate change holds many opportunities for trade unionists: moving towards a zero carbon Britain will create many more jobs.
Three senior Green Party spokespeople will take to the stage at the trade union climate conference taking place tomorrow, Saturday 8th February 2008, from 10:00am at the University of London Union. Principal Speakers Caroline Lucas MEP and Derek Wall, and London MEP Jean Lambert, will join environmental and union leaders to discuss the role of the labour movement in tackling climate change.
Jean Lambert MEP will chair the opening plenary session at 11:00am, entitled ‘Why Climate Change is a Trade Union Issue.’ She will be joined on the panel by Caroline Lucas as well as Michael Meacher MP, Mark Serwotka (PCS), Matt Wrack (FBU), Frances O’Grady (TUC) and Christine Blower (NUT).
Jean Lambert said:
"Climate change will soon have a major impact on our lives and there is a clear role for the Trade Unions to play in improving understanding of this complex issue in the workplace. All jobs and training must adapt to help tackle climate change or we will fail to meet our targets."
"I hope that this conference will help to find new ways to address this challenge in the context of environmental justice."
Caroline Lucas highlighted the opportunities for trade unionists to realign their industries for a low-carbon future:
"Tackling climate change holds many opportunities for trade unionists: moving towards a zero carbon Britain will create many more jobs. For example, research shows that wind energy creates over 2000 jobs per terawatt of energy produced, compared to just 75 for nuclear.
"Many trade unionists are also already at the forefront of policies to tackle climate change in their workplaces – and it is essential that these measures are replicated and scaled up."
Derek Wall joins the second plenary session of the day ‘Climate Change and Social Justice: Where do we go from here?’, with John McDonnell MP, Elaine Graham-Leigh (Respect), Jonathan Neale (Campaign Against Climate Change) and Tony Kearns (CWU).
Dr. Wall said:
"In the 1980s the National Union of Seaman took industrial action and ended the dumping of nuclear waste at sea. From workers’ plans aimed at cutting carbon while conserving jobs to ecostrikes against pollution, we can only solve the climate crisis by drawing on the power of unions."
The conference is hosted by the Campaign against Climate Change (CaCC). Media are welcome to attend. For more details on the event please visit the CaCC website at: www.campaigncc.org