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Tackling climate change through decent work

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Tackling climate change through decent work: the TUC's international development reception

A shared government and trade union approach to tackling the urgent challenge of climate change was the clear message of the International Development Reception at this year's TUC Congress.

Douglas Alexander, the Secretary of State for International Development and a range of trade union speakers spelled out their shared vision to an audience of trade unionists, government ministers and officials, business and NGOs.congress reception

Alexander spoke passionately about the leading efforts of Department for International Development in tackling climate change. This includes programmes that strengthen both the voice of the poor and their livelihoods. Trade unions are key civil society actors in driving this approach.

'Climate change is the most pressing issue we face globally,' said Frances O'Grady, the TUC's Deputy General Secretary and chair for the reception. 'While we're all affected by climate change,' continued O'Grady, 'it is workers and their communities in the poorest countries that are hardest hit.'

Nowhere is this truer than in Bangladesh, where unless urgent action is taken to halt climate change, there will be some 35 million environmental refugees by next century, commented Repon Chowdhury, the International Secretary of the Bangladesh Trade Union Congress. A leading voice on climate change for workers and their communities in Bangladesh, Chowdhury highlighted the scale of the problem, but also important initiatives to make mitigation and adaptation to climate change fair and just for those most affected, through providing them with green and decent jobs.

The international trade union movement is making huge strides in building the massive public support necessary to drive the transition to a low carbon economy, said Guy Ryder, the General Secretary of the ITUC. Central to this shift has been the promotion of a 'just transition': where measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change should support workers through social protection, social dialogue and green and decent jobs.

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