Everyone here at the UN Climate Change conference in Poznan is speaking about two key issues now – the EU’s climate package, and the incoming Obama administration – and their impact on securing a new climate change treaty in 2009.

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Just what green industrial opportunities mean for working people is brilliantly explained in a new report from the American trade unions and the US Environmental Defense Fund, published here in Poznan at a packed Side Event to the UN Conference on Climate Change.

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In recognition of the important work on climate change conducted by the trade union movement, the UN body dealing with climate change (the UNFCCC) has granted the ITUC the select formal status of being an “official constituency” in the Climate Change process for the ITUC’s contributions and its participation from now on.
“Trade unions believe climate [...]

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I’m at the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, where the ITUC’s statement and our lobbying activities are aimed at the core trade union issues of employment rights and making sure that workers have a seat at the table. We’re trying to raise a broad set of employment related issues for trade unions from the [...]

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Christmas came early for the ITUC trade union delegation in Poznan for the UN climate treaty conference. ITUC coordinator Anabella Rosemberg reports that the ITUC’s status within the treaty has been formally recognised, as a full Observer body to the UN process.
This gives full access to meetings, rights to speak, better facilities. But second and [...]

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This isn’t a green new deal, but the Chancellor has dealt a few green cards. £535 million in new investment plus money brought forward for environmental projects is likely to be jobs-rich - in homes insulation and central heating packages, train making and flood defences.
This includes:

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It’s not hit the headlines yet, but the recession is also driving down the market price of carbon. It’s fallen by 25% in the past month to 18 euros a tonne of CO2, drifting down towards values that cannot hope to drive the introduction of alternative low carbon industrial technologies. Nor tackle the projected rise [...]

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Quick off the mark, Secretary of State for Energy & Climate Change, Ed Miliband, has just announced amendments to the Energy Bill to support a feed-in tariff for small scale power generation.
A win-win for climate change and the economy (and a big shift in the Government’s position). The TUC and the many supporters of a [...]

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A crucial European Parliament vote today (October 7) will help define the EU’s view on how to spend 30 billion euros ($40.77 billion) that EU member states will earn annually from selling carbon emissions permits from 2013. The vote could support 10 bn euros of aid for carbon capture and storage (CCS). Many MEPs will [...]

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Hard on the heels of Gordon Brown’s vision of 1million new green jobs by 2030 or maybe sooner, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has launched a major new study of the global employment opportunities and risks of a low carbon  future.

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