29 November, 2012IndustriALL is central in the work of the trade union caucus at COP18 (18th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) in Doha, Qatar, running from 26 November to 7 December.
Host country Qatar has a record of horrible practices with respect to migrant workers and trade union rights. Trade unions are illegal and most of the work in the country is done by precarious migrant workers who are accorded no rights and little respect.
COP15, in Copenhagen, concluded without commitments for future actions and funding. There was some progress at COP16 in Cancun, and COP17 in Durban, in at least resuming the process and reaffirming the credibility of the UNFCCC process. However, we are now at the end of the initial commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, and the risk is that whatever commitments existed within the KP could be lost without having anything to replace it with. With varying dates proposed for a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol; and 2020 as the starting date for the Durban Platform (whatever it may eventually contain) we are headed for a fragmented future.
Most of the negotiating tension at COP18 will likely be around issues such as the effective end date of the Kyoto Protocol and the fate of past decisions made in the AWG-LCA. Issues of finance, conditionality and verification of commitments will also be a tension point. COP18 is judged unlikely to be able to deliver major decisions on money or funding sources.
Addressing the opening plenary of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA) Doha, Qatar, Tuesday, 27 November 2012, IndustriALL Director for Health, Safety and Sustainability Brian Kohler, on behalf of the international trade union movement stated:
We support the discussions surrounding a 2nd commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. We believe it is important that the LCA ensure in its final mandate that the institutions and legal architecture built up within the Convention and Protocol so far, be preserved … I call on Parties to ensure that past LCA decisions, including those related to Just Transition, are not lost when Parties re-orient their work towards the Durban Platform.
The Climate Fund governance has just been set up. It is dominated by central banks and they are not willing to allow participation by labour and NGOs. They feel no political responsibility to grant unions space which is a major democratic deficiency. Unless trade unions are able to get the right governance in place, they will express concern and insist on some democratic control. Unions will not be able to see or influence decisions to fund e.g. private initiatives, instruments, projects that do not respect labour and social standards and it risks becoming a 100 billion dollar corruption fund.
As for funding sources, the financial transaction tax is being overlooked; while the central bankers seem to favour a carbon tax.