David Begg's letter on Climate Change
4 May 2009
Re: Climate Change negotiations up to and during the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UNFramework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Dear Minister John Gormley,
Despite the prevailing context of worsening global economic and financial crisis, over the course of 2009 governments must reach an agreement on climate change to succeed the current Kyoto Protocol; an agreement that will put our world on a path to protect our societies, their environment and the generations to come.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions is affiliated to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) which represents 170 million workers through its 312 affiliated organisations in 157 countries and territories. We are writing to convey to you the trade union position for these crucial negotiations, as well as trade unions' specific demands aimed at achieving a fair and ambitious climate change agreement. We urge you to support the proposals it contains during the negotiations which will take place during this year, beginning in Bonn, Germany (29 March - 8 April) and up to the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen, Denmark (7-18 December 2009), as they would both advance the interests of all countries worldwide and contribute to addressing many urgent challenges posed by climate change and climate change measures.
Trade unions have made a commitment to support strong and ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets in developed countries, combined with effective action for achieving GHG emission reduction or controlled increases to bring about low carbon development in developing countries. We call for adaptation strategies to be well-funded and to target vulnerable communities, and for research & development and deployment of new green technologies to be scaled up. We believe this is a crucial time to seize the opportunity for repairing and rebuilding national economies on the basis of social and environmentally-responsible investment that can create jobs, stimulate economic growth, and reduce GHG emissions.
However, both these potential benefits and the employment challenges ahead remain unaddressed in the current negotiations. In our view the agreement needs to signal to all countries and stakeholders that its signatories are mindful of its social and economic impacts and that it proposes a strategy for addressing them, in particular with respect to the damage caused by climate change, the right to development in a carbon-constrained world and the need to transform job losses into new green job opportunities. The latter is particularly important in view of the current economic crisis.
Therefore, our main demands comprise:
1. Ensuring that the new agreement calls on governments to consult, plan and implement a "just transition" strategy, aimed at protecting the most vulnerable from climate change risks and from the consequences of climate change adaptation or mitigation measures.
2. Ensuring that the next agreement makes specific mention of employment and income.
The UNFCCC has a mandate regarding social and economic measures related to climate change; however, there is a need to specify the need for addressing income and employment, in particular regarding flexibility mechanisms, deforestation, adaptation strategies and financial mechanisms.
3. Including the promotion of consultation and dialogue with all stakeholders, including trade unions, at the international, sectoral, national and local level, as means for fostering and speeding up implementation of effective and employment-sensitive climate change policies.
The trade union document attached details these different proposals. We would be most happy to facilitate a discussion of the trade union position between our country's delegation to the COP negotiations and the climate change experts of the national and international trade union movement.
We call for your serious considerations of this document and for your support of its proposals in the current discussions leading to and during COP15, as well as to working with trade unions at the national level in addressing this crucial challenge for our society.
We look forward to receiving your views.
Yours sincerely,
David Begg
General Secretary
ICTU