A commission for four British trades unions argues the case for the
immediate
creation of a million new jobs all of which reduce green house gases -
and urges
the British government to create a national climate service:
http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/resources/green_workplaces/green_campaigns/one-
million-
climate-jobs-now.cfm
Introduction
Several trade unions and many climate activists in Britain have decided
to fight
to make the government create one million green climate jobs
immediately. This
short report from the Campaign against Climate Change explains how we
can do
that and why we must.
At some point gradual climate change is going to turn into runaway
catastrophe.
We may well hit that point in the next twenty years. To avoid doing so,
we need
drastic cuts in the amount of carbon dioxide, methane and other
greenhouse gases
we put into the air.
This will mean government regulation and international agreements. It
will also
take a lot of work - jobs. We have to produce wind, wave, tide and solar
power.
We have to renovate and insulate our homes and buildings. And we have to
provide
a network of cheap buses and trains.
There are two and a half million unemployed people in Britain. By next
year
there are likely to be three million or more. It is possible that the
economy
will have started to 'recover' by 2010. But recovery only means that
profits and
sales begin to rise. Unemployment will grow for a time after 'recovery'
begins,
and may stay high for a very long time.
We have people who need jobs and work that must be done. A million
climate jobs
in the UK will not solve all the economy's problems. But it will take a
million
human beings off the dole and put them to work saving the future.
We cannot halt climate change by action only in the UK. But if we act,
people
all over the world will know, and take hope and courage to act
themselves.
Who are we?
In the spring of 2009 the trade union group of the Campaign against
Climate
Change organised a conference of 200 union activists. That conference
decided to
start a serious fight for green climate jobs.
We set up a working commission to draw up detailed plans. That
commission has
people from the campaign, from several UK unions, from non-governmental
organisations and many academic experts. It is preparing a longer report
with
more detailed calculations of how many jobs will be needed in each
sector and
how much they will cut emissions.
But we are bringing out this booklet now, because we want unions to
start
fighting for a million jobs right away.
The main kinds of new jobs we need
Producing alternative energy
Insulating and renovating buildings and making better appliances
Public transport on trains and buses
Manufacturing
Educating and training the new workers.
Section 1 - What are climate jobs?
Climate jobs are jobs that reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we put
into the
air. Greenhouse gases cause global warming. This preliminary report will
concentrate on the most important gas, carbon dioxide (CO2).
We are emitting CO2 into the atmosphere by burning coal, oil and gas -
these are
called CO2 'emissions'. We need to cut CO2 emissions as fast and as
deeply as
possible, especially in developed countries like the UK. Here we should
be
looking at cuts of around 75% to 80%. That means burning only 20% of the
coal,
oil and gas we do now. (For the reasons why, see section 3.)
We can do that. But it will take a lot of work. If we can cut our energy
use in
half and supply half of that from alternative energy, we can cut CO2
emissions
by 75%. We will need at least a million new climate jobs to do that.
When we say
a million climate jobs, we mean something rather different from what the
politicians mean when they talk about 'green jobs'.
We mean climate jobs, not 'green jobs'. Climate jobs are jobs that cut
down the
amount of greenhouse gases we put in the air and thus slow down climate
change.
'Green jobs' can mean anything - jobs in the water industry, national
parks,
landscaping, bird sanctuaries, pollution control, flood control and many
more
things. All these jobs are necessary. But they do not affect global
warming.
We want a million new jobs, not ones people are already doing. We don't
want to
add up existing and new jobs and say that we now have a million climate
jobs. We
don't mean jobs with a climate connection, or a climate aspect. We don't
want
old jobs with new names, or ones with 'sustainable' in the job title.
And we
don't mean 'carbon finance' jobs.
We want the government to employ a million workers. That means we want
the
government to start employing 83,300 workers a month and to have
employed one
million within twelve months.
This is a new idea. Up to now, government policy has been to use
subsidies and
tax breaks to encourage private industry to invest in renewable energy.
They
also plan to give people grants or loans for part of the cost of
renovating
their homes. Their idea is to encourage the market.
We want something more like the way the government used to run the
National
Health Service. In effect, the government sets up a National Climate
Service and
the new NCS employs staff to do the work that needs to be done. That way
we can
be sure it is done. Given what the scientists are telling us, we need to
be
sure.
Most of us in the trade union group would like to see almost all of
these
workers employed by central or local government. We are aware this may
not be
politically possible, and part of the work will probably be done by
contractors.
But we want the government to control the project - so that we all know
they are
making sure it happens - and not simply rely on the market. And we want
jobs
with proper wages, pensions and trade union rights.
A million new climate jobs will also create hundreds of thousands of
other new
jobs. This always happens with new investment. New jobs are created with
suppliers. For example, the new National Climate Service may run the
wind
turbine factory. But that factory will buy steel, wood, aluminium,
electricity,
brooms and tea, and the people who make and transport those things will
also
have jobs.
New jobs are also created because a million new workers with wages spend
more
money than they did on the dole. Somebody has to make the goods and
services
they buy. Those people have new jobs too. And so do the people who make
the
things they buy, and the new materials their companies buy.
But some people will lose their jobs. If there is a massive expansion in
renewable energy, some of the jobs in the old energy economy will go. By
no
means all and it won't happen quickly, but it will happen.
In the same way, a massive shift to public transport would create jobs
driving
buses, making buses, and making electric cars. But there would be fewer
jobs
making petrol and diesel cars.
Many more jobs will be created than lost. It takes many more workers to
run
buses and trains than it does to build cars for the same number of
passengers.Ref 1 For a given amount of energy, it takes more workers to
build
and operate alternative energy than it does to build and operate gas or
coal
fired power stations.Ref 2 And jobs renovating homes and buildings do
not put
anyone out of work.
We will have to protect people who lose their jobs because of the new
climate
economy. This is easy if the government employs the new climate workers.
The
government simply guarantees new jobs to these workers and provides
training if
needed.
Communities dependent on fossil fuel industries must also be supported
economically and financially to help transform the local economy and
improve
community well-being. Moreover, enough of the new jobs in the climate
economy
must go to the communities most affected.
This is not only a matter of social justice. If we don't guarantee jobs
in this
way, different groups of workers will be in conflict. There are powerful
forces
in society, like the oil companies, who do not want a new climate
economy. They
will use those divisions between workers to make sure nothing is done.
So the new Climate Service will employ a million direct workers, but
create
about one and a half million jobs in all. This is a rough estimate. The
government will be employing 1,000,000 workers directly. Examples from
other
industries suggest that these million workers will create approximately
another
850,000 jobs in related industries and increased spending in local
economies.Ref
3
On the other hand, some jobs will also be lost. We cannot yet be precise
about
these numbers, but something like 350,000 is probably not that far out.
This
gives us a net gain of 1,500,000 workers.
- go to the link to read more...
--
Prof. Barbara Harriss-White, Director,
Contemporary S. Asia Studies Programme, Department of International
Development,
Queen Elizabeth House, 3, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TB, UK
tel (44) (0) 1865 281823 (o) 281201 (f) 558862 (h)
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