Green Workplaces Newsletter October 2014

 TUC Climate Conference  Defra Audit Success  EVs at BT  Climate march Kew campaign  Green league table  1m jobs at stake Canadian green workplaces  Naomi Klein: radical solutions Public transport under threat  FBU energy report UCU: Jobs and education Fossil fuels unburnable  TUC flooding debate   Events
 

Organising

“Can we ever build a green economy?”Free TUC conference.

Date: Thursday 6 November 2014
Time: 9:30-13:00
Venue: Congress House, London.
Refreshments available.

This national half day conference will set out the importance of taking international and national action to address climate change.

What more needs to be done to shift the UK towards a lower carbon economy? How can we transform energy supply, finance and energy efficiency to give our climate change objectives any chance of being met?

We also know that national action alone will not
be enough. With next year set to be an
unprecedented period of international climate change diplomacy, what can civil society
organisations do to strengthen the case for change?
The TUC is publishing three expert reports on the day. The authors will outline their arguments to the conference and we debate them in our workshops. Each workshop which will include commentaries from an expert panel.
Essays:
• Green innovation
• Green Collar Nation
• Back to the Drawing Board

Speakers:

• Sir David King, Special Representative for
Climate Change, Foreign and Commonwealth
Office.
• Frances O’Grady, TUC General Secretary.   
• Rt. Hon. Caroline Flint MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.      
• Professor Paul Ekins, Director, Professor of
Resources and Environmental Policy,
UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources.
• Will McDowall, Senior Research Associate,
UCL Energy Institute/UCL Green Economy
Commission.
• Fergus Green, Policy Analyst and Advisor to
Lord Stern, Grantham Research Institute on
Climate Change.          
• Dr Doug Parr, Chief Scientist, Greenpeace.
• Chair: Sue Ferns, Director of Research &
Communications at Prospect and TUC
General Council lead on climate change
and the environment.

Further speakers will be announced in due course.

To join us visit our registration page

Union Environmental Audits at Defra’s regional office,York

The Green Workplace project at Defra’s York office was recently featured in the TUC’s new publication “The Union Effect". Experiences at Defra (York) will doubtless ring bells with many green reps struggling to get their own environmental projects off the ground.  At a time when facility time is being slashed and reps face competing priorities, the project shows that with persistence, progress can still be made in the most difficult of circumstances.
 
Setting the scene

At Defra (York), prior to the green workplace project getting underway, performance against the Greening Government Commitments - targets for reducing the environmental impact of government estates and operations - was a mixed bag.
 
While DEFRA (York) were on target for reducing water usage and domestic flights, and were exceeding their targets on reducing paper use, their performance on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and on reducing waste remained behind set milestones.

Workplace audits

Proposals for an environmental audit process were first drawn up by the unions, PCS, Prospect and FDA, and presented to the Joint Sustainability Forum (JSF), a national level consultative body, in 2008.

The JSF was set up following a recommendation by the Parliamentary Environmental Audit Committee that the civil service unions be consulted on environmental issues. The audits were a joint initiative aimed at developing standard practice across the civil service. 

An audit was eventually jointly conducted by PCS and management in March 2013 and the overall result was encouraging. For 57 specific issues where information was available, in 20 it was agreed that appropriate environmental steps had been fully implemented, and in a further 13 they had been mostly implemented. Only six responses indicated no or minor implementation.

The intention was that the audit would form a baseline against which future improvements could be measured. Action plans based on the audit could then be reviewed after three, six and 12 months. The unions agreed to provide training support, such as a half-day workshop, if requested.

Unfortunately, up to the publication of ‘The Union Effect’, despite the limited amount of time required to conduct the audit, it had not been repeated.

PCS then proposed a second audit to identify where there had been measurable improvements and produce carbon and cost savings. The response from management was favourable.

PCS and Defra Network Estates senior management have now completed this ‘final’ joint environmental audit. The final report will be written up by the unions and agreed by senior Defra management before Christmas, facility time dependant.  It will compare the first benchmark audit measures in 2013 with these latest findings.

The union role

Without a doubt the unions have played a central role in the environmental auditing at Defra York: developing the audit checklist, and, along with management, planning and undertaking the audits. It is the PCS rep too who produces the audit reports. 

Lessons learned

Unions and management faced a considerable challenge to improve the site’s environmental performance. The buildings already had three BREEM excellent certificates, a National Green Apple Award for Built Environment and already met targets set by the Sustainable Operations on the Government Estates (SOGE). Graham Bowers, PCS rep comments: ‘It seemed a very tough task to improve the built environment even further but the audit has proven that it is possible to continually improve ‘greening’ between one year and the next”.

The final audit highlights an overall marked improvement in a number of important areas - 100% of all food waste is now recycled via “anaerobic digestion” plus 98% of all other site waste is recycled – up from 91% in 2009. The report will also identify several issues for additional investigation by management such as PIR sensors in all stairwells – subject to relevant building regulations and checks on the timers for three water-coolers.

Facility time

A major stumbling block facing Defra (York) has been a sharp reduction in union facility time, the time available for union reps to carry out union duties and activities. In the Defra network, facility time has been cut by 75% from the equivalent of 20 full-time staff to just five. This complies with a centrally imposed guideline that only 0.1% of the total paybill can be used for all union duties and activities.

This cut has had an impact on the time available for all areas of the unions’ work, including environmental projects. Pressure on management resources may also have played a part in adding to the challenges faced.

Graham explains: “It is very unlikely that the final report will contain any useful cost saving or carbon saving details as originally envisaged at the outset. Unfortunately, this would just be far too complex and time consuming considering the limited union facility time".

Nevertheless, as Graham explains “the audits provided an excellent basis for establishing a shared vision among the teams and fostering a partnering spirit. Innovative ideas and solutions recommended by either PCS or management were considered jointly and implemented”. Graham continues: “The audit measures used were successful and enabled us to achieve impressive measurable improvements that far exceeded both PCS’s and Defra’s expectations, albeit made difficult by starting at such a good environmentally sound level”. 

Graham also points out that the project is having an impact on other green workplaces: “Some union green reps, not just those within the Defra Network, are using the Defra/union benchmark audit as a template for their own audit”.

It is clear that other union reps will be following the fortunes of this GreenWorkplace project very closely. 
 
 
BT: sparking interest in electric vehicles
 
Prospect members Andrew Cassy and Sam Watkins are busy raising the profile of Electric Vehicles at BT’s research and development HQ near Ipswich, a TUC GreenWorkplace.
 
Andrew and Sam admit that six years ago, if you blinked, you’d probably miss the two EVs in the staff car park at Adastral Park. One, a G-Whizz a staff member had brought up from London, was returned because of a lack of infrastructure and support.  The second – a home-made EV – blew up on one of the Park’s charging posts. It’s not been seen since.

But fast forward to 2014 and Andrew, the site’s travel plan manager and Prospect green rep, says that the only “explosion” is in the interest for EVs among staff.

Andrew told us, “We’ve already implemented a range of sustainable travel options at the Park to demonstrate our intent to encourage more sustainable travel to our site”.

Sustainable travel plans are a crucial element for any greenworkplace. Compared with other sectors of the economy, transport has seen slow progress in tackling emissions. According to the Campaign for Better Transport, they are down only 3 percent since 1990.

Back in 2008, Andrew persuaded bosses to install two Elektromotive EV charging posts. In 2012, public EV charging outlets were added to the visitor car park – among the first in Suffolk.

"Already this year we’ve had a new Nissan Leaf, Vauxhall Ampera and BMW i3 regularly using the charging posts, with many more people considering purchase” says Andrew.

“It’s meant the site policy for charging and parking facilities has had to be reviewed to encourage a shift towards EVs, to de-carbonise the transport sector to meet the Government’s UK emission targets for 2050”, he added.

“BT Fleet is also surveying company car drivers and band 2+ employees on EVs and other changes to the company car list” said Andrew.

EV showcase gets workforce involved.

Prospect member and Technology, Service & Operations technical manager, Sam Watkins, was a self-confessed petrol-head but has now turned EV evangelist after borrowing one to commute. Sam even has her own EV blog. “I don’t know of any diesel or petrol focus-sized car that can give a week’s worth of commuting for less than £2 today,” she said.

To raise awareness of EVs and exploit growing interest, Sam organised an EV-ent showcase day at the Park on 23 September. Taking a hands-on approach to publicising the event , Sam talked at monthly union meetings, leafleted the BT cafeteria at lunch time, set up a stand and talked to everyone she could.

For the showcase, Sam secured an impressive line-up of EVs including: two Tesla S models, the BMW i-series, a C Evolution electric scooter, a Renault Twizy and Zoe, and the new Nissan Leaf.  “We aimed the event at pure EVs and not hybrids - due to their cleaner emissions,” explained Sam.

There were static vehicles on display and a selection for staff to test drive. Five employees even stood the chance of winning a weekend loan of one of the EVs. With the event open not just to BT employees but to other companies on site, Sam ensured a good turn-out.

“My ambition was to make others aware of the EV options currently available” says Sam, “most manufacturers now have some form of electric vehicle available, so I’m hoping to see another ten or more EVs regularly on site in the next six months.”

Andrew and Sam’s efforts at promoting sustainable travel at work are beginning to pay dividends. Organising eye catching events and getting staff actively involved is making EVs a topic of conversation among staff.

A recent survey of the workforce at Adastral Park revealed a high interest in EVs - more than 15% of respondents said they’d be interested in purchasing an EV in the next six months.  It’s a powerful way to get the workforce to start thinking “green”.

If you want to kick off a transport project where you work you can find advice and a model survey on transport in the TUC’s ‘Go Green at Work handbook for reps’.

Thousands march to support climate campaign
by Ken Montague, Secretary of the Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group

The weekend of 20th – 21st September was a good one for the climate movement and for the growing engagement of trade unionists with the climate issue.

Over 2,500 demonstrations and other events were held worldwide on Sunday 21st in the run-up to the UN climate talks, with the largest, the New York “People’s Climate March” attracting around 400,000 people.

In Britain, thousands took part in marches and rallies in London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Sheffield, and other cities. The London march exceeded all expectations with upwards of 40,000 people marching to Parliament Square to demand more decisive action from governments to tackle climate change.

Another key event over the weekend was the conference on Saturday held at London Metropolitan University, “For a Future That Doesn’t Cost the Earth – The International Fight for Climate Jobs”. Organised by the Trade Union Group of Campaign against Climate Change, this was timed to link with the New York People’s Climate March and had a strong international theme.

One of the contributors, via Skype, was Fernando Losada, Director of Environmental Health and Climate Justice for the US National Nurses United union. Fernando explained how over 200 union branches were backing the New York march, many of their members “galvanised through local campaigns against the extreme energy agenda”.

Other contributors included Kjersti Barsok, Vice-President of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions and a leading contributor to the Norwegian “One Hundred Thousand Climate Jobs” campaign, and Dipti Bhatnagar of Justiça Ambiental, Mozambique, who spoke on the impact of climate change on Africa and the growing climate jobs movement in southern Africa. Philip Pearson, the TUC’s lead on energy and climate change, spoke on the theme “Carbon time is running out”.

The conference also saw the launch of the new edition of the One Million Climate Jobs report, now backed by eight national unions. The report explains the potential for creating government climate jobs in a range of industries, with case studies on floods and the alternatives to fracking. A full outline, with a form for bulk ordering copies for union branches, can be found at http://www.climate-change-jobs.org/node/14.

Campaign to save Kew – not just a pretty garden

Prospect, PCS and GMB have stepped up the pressure over the impact of staff and budget cuts at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Kew, with sites at Kew Gardens, London and Wakehurst Place, Sussex is a world-leader in conservation and botanical science, with over 250 years of historical excellence in these fields.
 
Over 100,000 people have so far signed an online petition at change.org to reverse the existing cuts to Kew’s annual operating grant in aid funding, and to cancel the proposed and any future cuts.
 
In 1983, 90% Kew’s funding came from the UK Government. Now it is below 40%. Unions say the cuts put Kew’s position as a national asset at risk.
 
Prospect negotiator Julie Flanagan said that "despite the recent announcement by Nick Clegg of a reversal of this year’s budget cut, Kew remains under threat".
 
Prospect, PCS and GMB, who are spearheading the campaign to save Kew, welcomed the news but agreed with Kew’s director, Richard Deverell, that although this funding will go some way in helping Kew move to a sustainable future, it will not fully resolve the original £5m gap in its budget for 2014-15.
 
“Kew faces year-on-year cuts and unless we can persuade the government to change its position, Kew will axe even more expert staff” said Julie “The cuts are unsustainable and a contradiction because it is the staff who are in the best position to generate income”.
 
Prospect’s parliamentary officer, Parmjit Dhanda, said: “We are pleased at this temporary reprieve which shows the importance of the widely backed campaign. Of course, increased funding and longer-term security beyond the election would have been even better. But Nick Clegg’s statement is a bit like bedding plants – a temporary show.”
 
Kew has already had to lay off more than 50 staff who have left on a voluntary basis and major cuts in the number of science staff are still on the table. Many decades of skill and experience have been lost and more staff are expected to go.
 
Dhanda said: “Kew needs long-term certainty about its funding to be able to plan and manage its limited resources efficiently and effectively. Kew unions are calling for an independent review to examine this and move to a funding cycle that is longer than three months.”
 
You can show your support for Kew, and their continuing work for future generations, by signing the petition at: http://www.change.org/p/globally-important-conservation-and-science-und…

Higher education: Green League Table
by Graham Petersen, UCU

People & Planet is finalising its arrangements for the 2014 league table which ranks Higher Education Institutions according to environmental performance.

It provides an opportunity for union branches and reps to engage with their sustainability managers. One of the criteria in the student and staff engagement section includes “engagement with recognised trade union reps, environment reps or engagement with trade unions on sustainability issues.”

Paul Rock, UCU Environment rep at Cardiff University reports that “This is going well at Cardiff and I am now a member of the Environmental Management Systems Steering Group on behalf of the recognised unions.”

Some organisations and institutions have supported a boycott of the 2014 league
table. UCU does not agree with this. If there are concerns over the timing and content of the current model this should not be used as a reason to withdraw from the process. People & Planet do a remarkable job in providing a focus for sustainability and we hope that institutions that have withdrawn will reconsider.

Policy

ETUC says 1 million jobs at stake in EU climate summit
by Philip Pearson, TUC
Nearly a million potential jobs will be lost if EU leaders fail to agree strong climate and energy targets at a summit starting on Thursday 23 October, according to the head of Europe’s trade union movement.

The ETUC’s Bernadette Ségol warned that the proposed targets were too low to reap the benefits of a new clean energy economy:

“Energy efficiency and renewable energy targets create jobs. The lower the target, the fewer the jobs that are created. Governments opposing ambitious and binding targets are wasting an opportunity to reduce Europe’s shameful levels of unemployment. Politicians risk throwing away up to 823,000 new jobs that could be created by more ambitious targets.”

ETUC analysis suggests 823,000 net new jobs could be created, close to the findings of an official EU study into the employment effect of a 40% greenhouse gas cut, coupled with a 30% renewable energy target and strong energy efficiency goal:

• A single target of a 40% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 would create on the aggregate level of around 645,000 additional jobs.
• But a more dynamic scenario (“40%+”), based on 40% emissions reduction plus ambitious explicit energy efficiency policies (domestic and industrial energy) plus a 30% Renewable Energy target, would generate 1.25 million additional jobs by 2030.

The EU also reports that renewable energy production in the EU created or maintained somewhere between 800,000 and 1.2 million gross jobs by 2011.

With the right eco-innovation strategy, the 40% + target would offer a huge stimulus to manufacturing through investments in renewable energy power generation capacity, energy-efficient equipment, CCS, transport technologies, utilities, construction and supply chains.

Within the ETUC, concerns about the impact of carbon reduction targets on eastern European states, where coal mining and energy intensive industries such as steel and chemicals provide up to a fifth of gross value added, reinforce Ségol’s call for an EU “just transition” strategy.

Climate bargaining breakthroughs in Canadian workplaces
by Carla Lipsig-Mummé, Professor and Director, Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces to Respond to Climate Change, York University, Canada

To put it mildly, Canada has not been in the forefront of the struggle to slow global warming. And the silence about the impact of climate change on the world of work is deafening.

However in August 2014, a Canadian research team composed of 50+ Canadian unions, environmental groups and university researchers and British, American and Australian labour environmental groups, were awarded $2.5 million to develop union-based strategies to reduce GHGs in the workplace.  The funder is the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

The work world is a major producer of greenhouse gas emissions. Can workers and their unions lead the mitigation of greenhouse gases by adapting work practices?

Adapting Canadian Work and Workplaces to Respond to Climate Change (ACW 2014-2021) is a Canadian-based international project. The project’s work is divided into 3 parts:  research; training green stewards; and developing and implementing green plans.

The research component identifies carbon hotspots in key industries, resources and services, particularly hotspots that are common to more than one sector. It will also explore the environment, labour and employment law we have and the law we need; the broader social impact of ‘greening’ work design; and the limits and possibilities imposed on good policy in a politically unstable environment.

ACW’s training component will train a network of green stewards in fostering climate bargaining. Green stewards will spread environmental literacy sectorally and regionally, work with unionised workers and employers to ‘green’ work design, and support the implementation of green plans.

ACW’s green plan component focuses on climate bargaining: developing negotiated employer-union plans, included in the collective agreement, to commit to reduce GHGs over a period of time.  The goal is to expand the number of adapt-to-mitigate projects regionally and sectorally.

The ACW project, beginning in the second half of 2014, is the fourth Work and Climate Change project to receive funding. The first, ‘What do we know? What do we need to know?’ was a review of the state of research on work and climate change.

The second was a public outreach project: take the research carried out in previous projects and bring it to non-specialist groups.

The third project, Work in a Warming World,is a $1 million project which precedes ACW, and will end in 2017.

ACW’s British partners are the PROBE Research Institute of the University of Westminster, and Professor Linda Clarke and Dr. Colin Gleeson of Westminster.

ACW is just starting out, and interested in learning from others, worldwide, about their initiatives in greening work. For further information on the Work and Climate Change projects, see www.workinawarmingworld.yorku.ca.

Naomi Klein: radical action needed to tackle climate change
by Graham Petersen, UCU

There were so many ideas to take away from Naomi Klein’s inspiring address to a meeting of trade unionists at Congress House, London, in early October. She highlighted how the neo-liberal agenda has placed us in a position where only radical action will provide any hope of keeping to the 2 degree limit in global temperature rise.
The TUC meeting coincided with the International Day for Decent Work. It was one of a number of trade union events around the world where social justice at work was linked with the fight for climate justice.
Naomi argued that a sharp reduction of CO2 emissions of between 8-10% a year is needed but the current market system is incapable of delivering this system change.
Building a movement from below is the only way to generate the political will to make the changes needed to the economic system. Naomi spoke of the recent mobilisations around the UN Climate summit in New York when 300,000 took to the streets. For an excellent film on how this was done and the link with the science of climate change see Climate Change: Disruption.
The role of the education sector was discussed and Naomi referred to the fossil free campaign being run at Glasgow University. The university is the first in the UK to agree to divest out of the fossil fuel industry. A great victory and congratulations to People & Planet and everyone involved.
Naomi also welcomed the publication of the ‘1 million climate jobs’ pamphlet which illustrates the way that action on climate can be linked to the struggle for decent jobs. 
The meeting will hopefully inspire unions to re-double their efforts to place climate and social justice at the heart of what we do.
Public transport under threat
by Colin Potter, Unite.
 
For decades transport and planning policy has focused on the needs of motorists, but nearly half of all households in England are struggling with the costs of car ownership.

The absence of practical alternatives – with inadequate and expensive public transport and hostile walking and cycling environments – is forcing millions of people to choose between debt and social exclusion.
 
We have heard of several stories where the cuts in routes has resulted in the insane situation where individuals are paying more to get to work by taxi than they earn as there is no public transport in their area.

Action for rail
 
The Action for Rail Campaign is striving to reverse the position in rail transport where government subsidies by direct and indirect means are paying for the dividend payments to shareholders of private companies running the passenger services. These government subsidies have also led to a £35 billion addition to national debt due to the need to fund repairs and improvements to the track and signalling.

The current government’s solution is to cut safety critical staff, such as guards and track maintenance staff, and close ticket offices leaving many stations unstaffed. Having no staff on hand will inevitably lead to an increase in crime and discourage passengers from using the network, favouring instead the family car – if they can afford to run one.

In the 2012 Rebuilding Rail report, Transport for Quality of Life calculated that if the network had remained in public hands and if the amount of government subsidy had remained that same, fares would be on average around 18% cheaper than they are today. And we would have a network to be proud of. This is why Action for Rail is campaigning to return the network to public ownership.
 
Save our buses
 
Government spending cuts are having a devastating effect on our bus services. Across the country vital buses are being axed by local authorities as they make financially agonising decisions of where to cut spending.

The Save Our Buses campaign stands up for treasured local buses and defends them from damaging funding cuts. Routes and services across England and Wales are being lost and if we don't make a stand now, it will be too late.

Cuts to bus services also impact upon the 64% of jobseekers without access to a vehicle or unable to drive.  Certain sectors of society can be hit harder than others. Young people are among the biggest users of bus services, while 40% of people over 60 use the bus at least once a week.

And as passenger cars produce nearly 60% of all CO2 emissions from road transport in the UK, compared with just 5% from buses, investing in bus services makes environmental sense.  If drivers switched just one in twenty-five of their car journeys to bus or coach, it would mean one billion fewer car journeys per year. Every £1 of public investment in buses provides between £3 and £5 of wider benefits.

Reducing transport GHG emissions

The transport sector is a significant source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Domestic transport alone is responsible for around 20% of GHG emissions, releasing the equivalent of over 100 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
 
For these reasons it is important to encourage car sharing, the Bike to Work scheme and other initiatives to reduce the number of car journeys to work as part of any green workplaces scheme and encourage support for the Action For Rail and Save Our Buses campaigns.
 

FBU: public ownership and democratic control of energy firms

The FBU has published a report calling for major energy firms to be brought into public ownership to tackle the climate crisis and stop spiralling consumer costs.

In ‘It’s time to take over the big energy firms’ the FBU contributes to the debate over the future of the energy sector at a time when gas prices are continually increasing, when 25,000 people die of the cold every winter in the UK and five million British citizens live in fuel poverty.
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “Public ownership makes the perpetrators of the energy crisis pay for the damage they have done, whilst giving democratic power back to those who need it. We hope it will be debated by our colleagues in other unions and by other workers discussing the case for an alternative to the policies of the coalition government.”

The FBU can provide a free copy to any green reps who get in touch.

Jobs, education and a sustainable future
by Graham Petersen, UCU.

'Jobs, education and a sustainable future' is a new flyer produced by the Greener Jobs Alliance setting out ten steps towards sustainability skills. 

GJA supporters, which include the TUC, UCU and NUS, plan to use it to highlight the importance of a clear skills strategy in the lead up to the 2015 election. For more information visit:
http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/t/2/GJA_DL_leaf_sept14-1.pdf

Bank of England Governor: fossil fuels unburnable
by Philip Pearson, TUC

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has warned that the vast majority of oil reserves should be considered “unburnable”.
Carney called for climate change risk to be mainstreamed at an audience at the World Bank because continued fossil fuel investment poses a serious financial risk in a carbon-constrained world.
Unburnable carbon
Carney has re-emphasised his support for the idea that oil companies’ reserves could be stranded assets – still valued by investors, but ultimately going to embody losses. “The vast majority of reserves are unburnable,” the Bank of England governor said, if the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Thinking of hydrocarbon deposits as stranded assets has gained new prominence, helped by movements like the US student drive to persuade university endowments to disinvest from fossil fuel companies. Glasgow University is the first in the UK to agree to divest out of the fossil fuel industry.
Carney referred to a “tragedy of horizons” – the market failure by which investors, companies and governments are not looking far enough ahead to anticipate problems such as environmental degradation, even though these are known to them.

TUC Congress 2014 debates flooding, fracking and climate change
by Dave Green, FBU national officer

The Fire Brigades Union was proud to propose a motion at this year’s Congress on flooding and climate change.

The resolution updated Congress policy in light of the Fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. It called on trade unions and union reps to integrate extreme weather and climate adaptation plans into collective bargaining.

Firefighters, paramedics, Environment Agency workers and other civil servants, utility workers, local government and transport workers, plus many others provided tremendous support to those affected by the floods last winter.

Fire and rescue services recorded nearly 7,000 incidents and carried out around 2,000 rescues across the UK during the three months the floods caused havoc in our communities. And these figures underestimate the true extent of emergency work carried out.

Tam McFarlane, the FBU’s executive council member for the South West of England, who moved the motion, pointed to hollow government promises that ‘money is no object’ in flood recovery. This is particularly galling in the light of ongoing cuts and job losses to vital sectors engaged with flooding and other emergency work.

TUC policy has rightly emphasised mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions to prevent climate change, but it has also included adaptation to current risks and immediate effects of past emissions. This means making climate change relevant to the immediate concerns of workers.
Congress called on the government to reverse all cuts to flood resilience, from flood defence to emergency response, and to implement the Pitt Review recommendations in full, including a statutory duty on the fire and rescue service to respond to major flooding. Delegates also called on the Labour Party to actively support these measures. There was strong support for these flooding demands from all delegations.

A debate took place over fracking, which had been added through a PCS amendment to the motion, accepted by the FBU.

Fracking has become a political issue, both at government level with the Tories new dash for gas, and locally through campaigning, particularly in the North West and South East of England. Some 160 anti-fracking groups have sprung up – many over the last year. As Tam McFarlane argued, it is important for the trade union movement to take sides with these protesters.

Chris Baugh, PCS assistant general secretary seconded the resolution. He explained why it was important for Congress to continue to consult unions about a just transition to a low-carbon economy, including ‘a moratorium on extreme energy such as shale gas extraction (fracking)’. He said that climate is an issue for everyone and every individual union, and that the risks from fracking were becoming clear.

Sue Ferns from Prospect explained the General Council’s position, which was to support the resolution with an explanation. Congress made policy on fracking in 2012 following the precautionary principle and this policy still stood.

This year’s resolution was understood as re-affirming this policy rather than going further – a view accepted by the movers.

Clearly there is some debate among unions about the right stance towards fracking, and the TUC has played an important role in helping evaluate the risks – through organising briefings, engaging with stakeholders and activists, and through the Touchstone blog.

Those debates will continue in a comradely fashion, while we unite around the key demands that have sustained our climate policy for many years.

Event

“Can we ever build a green economy?”Free TUC conference.

Date: Thursday 6 November 2014
Time: 9:30-13:00
Venue: Congress House, London.
Refreshments available.

This conference will set out the importance of taking international and national action to address climate change.