Unions, climate change and the great inaction - Sean Sweeney
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Transcript of Unions, climate change and the great inaction - Sean Sweeney
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1.Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED)
2.TUED and Global Labor’s Climate Politics
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A global, multi-sector, initiative to advance democratic direction and control of energyGLI International Summer SchoolJuly 2014
Sean Sweeney, Ph.D. and Lara Skinner, Ph.D.
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Why TUED?
1. “Business as Usual” = Civilizational Crisis 2. The Energy Transition is NOT happening
3. Solutions Exist – And Unions Can Play a Crucial Role
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BAU – Emissions Set to Rise by 4-6 Degrees Celsius
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Fossil Fuels are NOT Running Out
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Extreme Energy on the Rise
Tar Sands Oil Shale gas “fracking” Mountaintop removal
and surface coal mining Deep sea / Artic oil
drilling
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Energy Expansion, Not Transition
Investment in Clean Energy v Conventional Capacity, 2004- 2011, $BN
Fossil fuel investment is calculated from EIA and IEA data. Renewable energy investment includes asset finance and small-scale projects, but excludes large hydro.Sources: EIA, IEA, Bloomberg New Energy Finance
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Renewable Energy is Below 5% of Electricity Production Nearly Everywhere
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More Fossil Fuels, More Emissions ≠ Energy Equity
Share of people without electricity access for developing countries, 2008
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Under Attack- Workers and Communities
• Many workers lack rights & union representation
• Health & safety issues• Production up, • employment down• Companies closing union
operations, reopening non-union.
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The Great Inaction Failure to agree is a cover for ‘business as usual’
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The U.S. supports a voluntary ‘pledge and review’ approach – the ‘Copenhagen Accord’
“Our view in the U.S. is that it (a binding climate agreement) is not a necessary thing to happen right now .”
Todd Stern, U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change, Bankok, April 7, 2011
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November 2013: The Collapse of the Talks in Warsaw
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Unions and environmental groups walk out of the Warsaw talks….
Commit to build a ‘peoples-led climate movement’
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The Path Forward for Unions
Unions Need a Climate Program that can:
Effectively address the climate crisis and the ecological emergencyBuild trade union and working class power Challenge capitalist political economy and the ‘growth imperative’ Assert social ownership and democratic control over key sectors
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Time for a class-based and independent trade union approach
“Rio+20 is about scaling-up and accelerating the Green Economy transformation already manifest in most if not all countries across the globe.”
-- Remarks by Achim Steiner to the Second Trade Union Assembly on Labour and the Environment, “Rio+20”, June 12, 2012
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What stands in the way?
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Energy: Developing a Framework for Action
• Resist – Business as usual, “carbon lock in” and the extreme energy agenda
• Reclaim – Take back what’s been privatized, de-marketize public companies
• Restructure – Deploy renewable energy to scale under social ownership and democratic control
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Immediate Goals of TUED: connect the struggles, build a global community, develop strategies and alternatives
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Energy Democracy – Power to the People
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www.energydemocracyinitiative.org