9 December, 2010At the COP16-WoW, IMF and ICEM promoted a shared vision of the importance of just transition through green technology innovation and the need of building a fund for achieving assisted mitigation and adaptation in the transition to a sustainable future.
MEXICO: The international trade union movement is making concerted efforts to implement "Just Transition" in the text of United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP16) which will close in a few days time. Meanwhile, on December 7, 2010, many trade union organizations held a series of events at the COP16 World of Work (WoW) Pavilion organized by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), to promote their solutions and policies to take up the challenge of climate change and to achieve Just Transition into a climate friendly and fairer economy.
At the WoW, the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF) and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) organized a joint event "Cutting Emissions - Transforming Jobs" focusing on environmental protection, sectoral concerns, sustainable jobs and just transition. In the panel discussion with Shoichiro Kaneko (from IMF-JC/JBU), Michael O'Connor (from CFMEU), James Howard (from ITUC), and chaired by Brian Kohler (ICEM) all the panelists have shared the importance of just transition through green technology innovation and the need of building a fund for achieving assisted mitigation and adaptation in the transition to a sustainable future.
Also in the event, the guest speaker, Izuru Kobayashi, an official negotiator of the Japanese government from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) gave a frank assessment of the ongoing negotiations and insisted the importance of creating a "legally-binding" effective framework for all major CO2 emitting countries.
In the closing remarks, Kan Matsuzaki (IMF) expressed, "Many of our members are working in energy intensive industries, and their jobs are rapidly transforming. We need Just Transition with concrete policy."
Also, find below a link to ITUC's daily movement at COP16.
ITUC: http://www.ituc-csi.org/-climate-change-blog-.html
For further information, please contact Kan Matsuzaki, Director of Shipbuilding, Non-Manual Workers and climate change at the IMF at [email protected].