Climate change and labour: The need for a “just transition”
Climate change and policies to mitigate it will in time have an
enormous impact on industries, jobs and workers. Yet,
until very recently climate change negotiations showed only
limited concern about the fate of workers, and far greater efforts were directed
at measuring the environmental rather than the social impacts of climate
change.
This issue of the International Journal of Labour Research is meant as
a modest contribution to start to fill that gap. It is based on papers presented at the
a workshop on
Climate Change and Employment held by the Bureau of Workers’ Activities of the ILO and
the International Trade Union Confederation in Brussels in March 2010.
Worldwide, trade unions have developed a point of view on the issue that
is encapsulated by the concept of “Just Transition”, the notion that the transition
process to a greener economy has to be inclusive of all stakeholders, and
that the unavoidable employment and social costs of the transition have to be
shared by all. This publication explores the following aspects of the transition to a greener economy:
Who will lose
jobs as a result of it? What support will be provided to workers and communities that are
on the losing end? What skills will be needed in the new sectors? How do
we ensure that the new jobs are decent jobs? These questions lead to inescapable conclusions: social dialogue will have to be at the heart
of the process and governments, beyond regulating the emission of greenhouse
gases, will have a key role in promoting the sort of industrial and social
policies that will lead to the creation of productive and decent employment.