Just transition

EDITORIAL

The relative appeal of green jobs

Green jobs occupy a prominent place in the debate around the environment. They are often billed as a cure-all for job losses across traditional sectors of industry: it is claimed that these jobs lost are made up for by the creation of new jobs in activities to remedy or prevent various types of environmental damage. The most ‘promising’ sectors are often quoted as being the likes of waste recycling, water purification, the production of renewable energy and the production of insulation materials for buildings.

Gamesa is a Spanish multinational, one of the finest examples of green capitalism, certified, labelled, and making much of its commitments to the environment, its ‘collaborators’ – in other words its staff – and ‘communities’. The company is posting enviable profits. Is it a success story for a win-win-win scenario?

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Laurent Vogel, Health and Safety Department Director

"Just transition" former editorials

ETUI ACTIVITIES

• British Trade Unions campaign against climate change
• The ‘green economy’, an opportunity for women?
• The ETUI at Copenhagen: workers’ participation and the sustainable company
• Climate Change, the environment and jobs in UNI Europa’s sector, Sophie Dupressoir, October 2009
• Light shades of green. Climate-friendly policies in times of crisis, Mariya Nikolova, August 2009
• Paradigm shift: social justice as a prerequisite for sustainable development, Philippe Pochet, Christophe Degryse, April 2009
• The October ETUI Monthly Forum was focused on The Transition to a Sustainable Economy
  The speaker was Tess Gill of the British Sustainable Development Commission. Download her Powerpoint presentation.

TRADE UNIONS ACTIVITIES

• “Copenhagen: an anti-climax”, said the ETUC
• “Commission’s only labour market response to climate change is greater implementation of the flexicurity agenda” (EMF)
  Interview with Judith Kirton-Darling, (EMF Industrial Policy Advisor) and Wolf Jäcklein (EMF Policy Adviser). read more
• Interview with Joël Decaillon, ETUC Confederal Secretary for the Environment. “The ETUC will fight for an ambitious agreement at Copenhagen” read more
• Denmark: “green policies” could create 35 000 new jobs
• EFFAT: Promotion of organic farming for climate protection
• European industry federations’ website on industrial policy and sustainable development
• Workshop Climate Change Impact on Employment and the Labour Market, February 25 – 26, 2010

EU NEWS

• Europe keeps conditional 30% emission target
• EU States split on 30% CO2 cuts
• France: combating energy insecurity will cost nearly 4 billion euros
• The environmental challenges of the Spanish EU Presidency
• The new Environment Commissioner wants to prioritise green growth and biodiversity
• EU may seek new routes to global climate deal
• The whole of civil society is affected by climate change
• EU lawmakers approve helping industry with CO2 cost
• Council announcement on safeguarding jobs
• Skilled personnel needed to achieve low carbon technologies
• Greening the European economy: Responses and initiatives by Member States and social partners
• Eurostat tool to gauge the benefits of REACH

OTHER ACTORS

• Global carbon trading up in 2009, though prices lower
• Spring Alliance calls for green and quality jobs
• Conference “Climate Change Mitigation Policies and Social Justice in Europe”, organised by The King Baudouin Foundation, Brussels, November 18-19, 2009