TUC: Climate change and a “Just Transition”

TUC: Climate change and a 'Just Transition'

For the TUC, a shift to a lower carbon economy is not just necessary but inevitable. Although much more needs to be done to reduce the risk of significant climate change this century, the future lies in greening the economy. This means massive new investments in low carbon energy, in the way we manufacture products, and in new industries like electric vehicle. It means taking action to cut energy and resource use at work and at home. New environmental regulations and carbon markets will change the shape of the UK economy over the next decade, with major implications for the world of work - in what we produce, and how we deliver goods and services.

The TUC's report, A Green and Fair Future, argues:

Unfortunately, significant periods of economic restructuring in the past have often happened in a chaotic fashion leaving ordinary workers, their families and communities to bear the brunt of the transition to new ways of producing wealth. Indeed, many individuals and communities in the UK are still paying the price for the rapid shift away from industrial production over the last 30 years.

Such injustice cannot become a feature of environmental transition. Not only would this be morally wrong and socially damaging but it would undermine the credibility of the transition itself and could slow or even halt this vital and urgent shift.

For this reason, among others, we need a 'Just Transition' to a low carbon economy. Just Transition recognises that support for environmental policies are conditional on a fair distribution of the costs and benefits of those policies across the economy, and on the creation of opportunities for active engagement by those affected in determining the future wellbeing of themselves and their families.

http://www.tuc.org.uk/touchstone/Justtransition/greenfuture.pdf

The five key principles of a Just Transition include.