The need for a Just Transition Directive is more urgent than ever following the news that the EU is meeting its climate change targets because of rapid deindustrialisation rather than decarbonisation.
The European Commission has announced that it is close to meeting its target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 55 per cent by 2030.
However, the Financial Times has reported that “a large chunk of emissions reductions have come from production cuts and plant closures, rather than decarbonisation.”
The EU is currently losing around 500 jobs a day amid mass restructuring.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) says climate targets should not be met on the backs of working people and is calling for:
- A Just Transition Directive that ensures companies proactively plan for change, rather than reacting only when job losses are about to occur, and ensure workers have a right to paid reskilling on work time. This would help fill existing labour shortages in sectors like clean tech.
- An investment mechanism to support a real European industrial policy and innovation with social conditions attached to ensure public money supports quality jobs and collective bargaining;
- A SURE 2.0 scheme, similar to the one which saved jobs during the pandemic, to prevent irreversible losses in our industrial capacity during a crisis caused by high energy costs, unfair competition, tariffs and profiteering;
ETUC Confederal Secretary Ludovic Voet said:
“The EU’s green targets cannot be delivered on the backs of working people. The European Commission promised working people there would a just transition to a green economy that left no worker or community behind.
“But this announcement shows that the EU is only meeting its climate goals because of deindustrialisation and not managed decarbonisation that would create new quality jobs.
“There is nothing to celebrate today for the millions of working people who have lost their livelihoods to chaotic deindustrialisation and have been left without alternative opportunities.
“The Commission must urgently bring forward a job protection scheme, support our industries with investment and deliver a Just Transition Directive which mandates companies to plan for change and train workers for new opportunities.
“Without finally taking pro-active measures to make a just transition to a decarbonised economy a reality, the Commission is creating the conditions for an even bigger backlash against climate measures we need to save the planet.”
