Green UNISON Newsletter

Plus: March for clean water, short film on indoor air pollution and a TUC blog on closing the UK’s last coalmine – showing just transition can work!

Hello UNISON Green Network!

“We need a Just Transition negotiated with the workers to bring social justice to the climate debate. The global union movement will be speaking to governments about our joint demands for COP29 to ensure that we have a strong voice at the negotiations.” ITUC Deputy General Secretary Eric Manzi

COP29: Fast on the heels of UNISON Green week we are now preparing for engagement with the 29th Conference of Parties (COP) which will be held from Monday 11th November until Friday 22^nd in Baku, Azerbaijan.

The summit has the membership of every country in the world, and previous COP meetings have set records for the largest gatherings of world leaders in history. It is where they will make key decisions on how countries will commit to tackle the climate emergency.

Once again COP is taking place in a context of some controversy about the host nation’s own fossil fuel intentions and concerns about its record on human rights. However, these conferences do make important progress and last year saw an agreement that was called “the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era.”

UNISON is proud we will be represented at COP again this year by Tony Wright, NEC member from the Yorkshire and Humberside region and chair of the UNISON Policy Development and Campaigns committee (PDCC) as one of only two UK participants of the International Trades Unions Congress (ITUC) observer delegation (See below for the ITUC trade union demands for a just transition to Net Zero).

Much of the work around COP29 takes place before the event begins, and in the build-up to the main event, Tony will aim to be meeting with representatives from the Labour Party, the TUC, iTUC and PSI to help put forward the strongest message from the trade union movement.

This year’s International Trade Unions Congress (ITUC) demands centre on the importance of climate funding:

• Comprehensive funding to create decent, quality jobs in climate change mitigation sectors through financing workforce development, training, apprenticeships and redeployment.
• Financial support for workers in high-emission sectors transitioning to low-carbon alternatives.
• Adaptation and resilience measures, including safe and healthy workplaces.
• Compensation for loss of livelihoods and damage to workers’ employment.
• Funding for social protection and for social dialogue with trade unions throughout the transition process.

Find out more about the ITUC COP29 objectives below:

We can’t all go to COP29, but we can all get involved across the UK and UNISON encourages you to do so.

Global day of action for Climate Justice – Sat 16^th November
Our friends at the Climate Justice Coalition (CJC) are calling on everyone across Britain to get organised for the Global day of Action for Climate Justice’.  They are encouraging people to host and support actions being planned across the UK to mark this year’s COP with particular emphasis on the need to move away from fossil fuels, fair climate change financing and human rights aspects of the climate emergency.
There will be planned events across the UK you can join, we expect this to include: Birmingham, Manchester, Portsmouth, Chesterfield, Newcastle, Brighton, Edinburgh and at least one in Wales. Details of each event will be uploaded below as they are confirmed.

UNISON absolutely recognises that human rights are routinely being abused in the name of fossil fuel extraction, in the global supply chains of many renewable solutions and in the disproportionate impact of climate change’s role on the devastating consequences that threaten the basic ‘right to life’ of entire regions and nations.  UNISON also recognises the ecological impact of wars and increased militarisation in terms not only of their carbon footprint, but also of the contamination / ecocide that result in war zones remaining uninhabitable for years after the conflict has ended. Climate Change and human rights are inextricably linked to inequalities in wealth and power – human rights are at the heart of a just transition to a greener future for all that leaves no-one behind.

More Green UNISON updates and recommended activities:

Join: March for Clean Water London Sat 3^rd November
People will be marching in central London to protest the poisoning of UK waters.  More information on what’s happening and how to join can be found here.

As ever, we hope you can get involved with Green UNISON in any way you can!
If you’d like to find out more about the work that UNISON is doing to make our public services greener you can head over to our website.