Post by nilprojaproti22 on Mar 16, 2024 4:43:50 GMT
As Climate Change negotiations take place in Warsaw, Poland, IndustriALL Global Unions offers a solution: a Just Transition to implement sustainable industrial policies, which can create a hopeful future for the workers of today and tomorrow. Climate change endangers everything the union movement stands for: equity, social justice, decent work. The science is unequivocal. There is a clear and urgent need to adopt measures to limit climate change: it is no longer about preventing it, but limiting it. Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, which has coincided with the current round of climate negotiations (COP19), highlights the urgency for countries to accept firm and ambitious emissions reduction targets. As expected, powerful interested entities are waging a campaign of disinformation and blackmail over jobs, in order to delay action. This has nothing to do with science: it is due to the fact that there are fossil fuel reserves worth trillions of dollars, the valuation of which can be affected by any action plan.
Likewise, it has nothing to do with genuine concern for workers. The governments and companies that reject initiatives to protect the environment, and now pretend to care about jobs, are the same ones that have attacked workers and their unions for decades. As Jyrki Raina, General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, said: «This is a class war. As billionaires prepare shelters for themselves and to safeguard Phone Number AU their fortunes, workers will have to pay the price of climate change, just as the world's poorest populations will be forced to pay disproportionately for the consequences. As Raina notes, “Governments must act now, in the interests of their citizens and future generations. We want a fair, ambitious and binding agreement on greenhouse gas emissions. We want sustainable industrial policies that generate decent employment in sustainable energy sectors, and efficient greener production systems. We want equitable and safe access to food, water and energy for all people. Furthermore, we need a Just Transition to reach that future, starting from the current situation in which we find ourselves. Either way, a transformation is coming.
The choice we have is whether it is going to be a violent fight for resources like water, energy, and fertile land, desperate last-minute survival measures that completely disregard human rights and social protection; or, if there is to be a Just and orderly Transition that respects and protects current workers, while creating new decent jobs in sustainable industries. Raina points out: «Casino economics does not have answers to these questions. We must plan for a future of hope for all workers, including those working in sectors that may be affected by initiatives taken to limit greenhouse gases. "It's simple social justice." Jyrki Raina concluded by saying: “There is no credibility if we ignore climate change or if we become the last defenders of the indefensible. Yes, we have a responsibility to care about jobs and the economy, but there will be no jobs on a dead planet.