Brussels, 03/12/2004
On the opening of the 10th United Nations climate change conference (COP 10), taking place from 6 to 17 December in Buenos Aires, the European trade union movement, which will be represented by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), and trade union organisations from Belgium, Spain and Italy, calls on the European delegation to debate in an open manner the European Union's experience of climate policies, and to work for global agreement on ambitious environmental objectives that will contribute to social progress for countries in the South as well as the North.
The European trade union movement supported prompt implementation of the Kyoto Protocol in the European Union since it believes that the social, environmental and economic consequences of any failure to act far outweigh the costs of introducing measures to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The transition to a less carbon-intensive economy is an opportunity to effect social progress and create more and better jobs, provided that measures designed to anticipate and fairly manage any industrial restructuring carried out are put in place.
At the COP 10 conference, ETUC will outline its concerns and proposals regarding the following points:
- The EU's credibility in planned negotiations on "post-2012 activities" depends on its internal actions. Accordingly, the EU must make greater efforts to use its many advantages - and energy-efficient economy, know-how in terms of environmental technologies, low level of demographic growth and an organised and skilled workforce - to reduce emissions. All available instruments should be used, in particular regulations, fiscal instruments and, at the international level, European investment and R&D programmes and forms of regulating energy markets, bearing in mind the social impact and the ramifications for employment.
- As well as redoubling its efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, the EU must also progress beyond the stage of defining objectives and instruments and must knuckle down to developing a real democratic consensus on tackling the social and societal challenges associated with the planned transition. To a large extent, dialogue between the social partners and governments, which has proved extremely successful in predicting and managing industrial restructuring (for example in the case of the European Coal and Steel Community, ECSC), has yet to be developed in the area of environmental policy.
- The central focus for the first time at COP 10 on the social impacts of climate change and measures to alleviate them is welcomed. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD (TUAC) have long been pressing for the agenda in the fight against climate change to be coordinated with existing international commitments on eradicating poverty and providing decent jobs in light of the eight core labour standards defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO): conventions 87 on freedom of association and protection of the right to organise, 98 on the right to organise and collective bargaining, 29 on forced labour, 105 on the abolition of forced labour, 100 on equal remuneration, 111 on discrimination (employment and occupation), 138 on minimum age and 182 on worst forms of child labour.