15 November, 2016IndustriALL's director for sustainability Brian Kohler blogs from the twenty-second Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22), in Marrakesh, Morocco.
As the conference shifts from technical discussions to the high-level political segment, some of the big committees active during week one are wrapping up their work. Here are IndustriALL’s comments to the closing plenary of the Subsidiary Body on Implementation.
Thank you Chair,
My name is Brian Kohler, sustainability director of IndustriALL Global Union, today speaking also for trade unions globally.
In Paris, parties committed to a Just Transition framework which establishes a clear link between the need to protect our climate and the need to secure the lives and livelihoods of today’s and tomorrow’s workers.
Here in Marrakesh, the discussion of how to operationalize it has been centred within the SBI/SBSTA contact group known as the Improved Forum on the Impact of the Implementation of Response Measures. We support the proposal in their draft conclusions to constitute an ad-hoc Technical Expert Group on Economic Diversification and Transformation and on Just Transition of the Workforce and the Creation of Decent Work and Quality Jobs and we acknowledge parties’ decision to draw on trade unions’ expertise in the future work of this group.
It is essential that the correct stakeholder experts are part of this expert group. As the discussion focuses primarily on jobs and transitioning to a sustainable economy, trade unions should be represented on it.
Trade unions have concrete ideas on how to craft and deliver the social support required for a Just Transition to a stable global climate, and a stable global economy. These include sustainable industrial policies, industrial transformation and economic diversification accompanied by creative labour adjustment programmes and strong social support.
The relevant stakeholders in this case are trade unions. Chair, no major group here has done more research on, or has a better understanding of, the necessary components of a Just Transition. We stand ready to provide detailed input and advice via the ad-hoc Technical Expert Group to the Improved Forum.
We thank the parties for their support on this issue. We urgently need this conversation to be a successful one.
Thank you.