Greener Jobs Alliance (GJA) Newsletter No. 43 – December 2022

Greener Jobs Alliance (GJA) Newsletter No. 43 – December 2022:

Introduction

The Greener Jobs Alliance (GJA) came into existence as a result of funding from Battersea and Wandsworth TUC. The GJA was launched to promote skills training and job creation to meet the needs of Britain’s rapidly growing low carbon sectors and to green the whole economy. The transition to a low carbon and resource efficient economy can drive sustainable economic recovery and job creation in every part of the country as well as making existing jobs more secure. But this requires a more strategic national and local approach to deliver the workforce skills needed and to stimulate demand for clean energy and energy efficiency services.

The Greener Jobs Alliance liaises at a national and local level to build the broadest possible support for the policies, investment, partnerships and commitments needed to drive the transition to a low carbon economy.

The Greener Jobs Alliance liaises with training bodies, colleges, universities, employers, local and national Government, trade unions, housing associations, campaign and community groups – to build the policies, investment and partnerships needed to drive the transition to a low carbon economy.

GJA ‘Free’ Courses:

The GJA runs a number of ‘free’ courses on the environment for Trade Union Reps in different parts of the UK which have been attended by a number of CWU Reps with details published in the newsletter.

The GJA now offer three ‘on-line’ courses as follows:

1. Climate Change Awareness

This short introductory course is aimed at trade unionists and anyone wishing to develop their understanding of the issues around climate change. The course is divided into 4 modules. The modules contain background information, short videos, graphs and illustrations.

Module 1: Climate Change Explained
Module 2: International Responses
Module 3: Trade Union Responses
Module 4: Getting Involved

At the end of each section, there are references and links to additional materials if you want to go further. There are no formal tests and you can work through the materials at your own pace but there are optional quizzes to check your understanding at the end of modules 1, 2 and 3.

2. A Trade Union Guide to Just Transition

Social justice must be at the heart of the development of a net-zero carbon economy. The course covers:

The meaning and history of the term just transition
Why it should be a priority issue
UK and international policies and case studies
Ideas for developing an action plan

It is aimed at trade unionists and anyone wishing to improve their understanding of why just transition should be central to climate change policy.

3. Air Quality – a trade union issue

The following issues will be explored in this free online course. It is made up of 3 modules,

Module 1: The Causes and Health Impacts of Air Pollution
Module 2: The Law and Government Policy
Module 3: Trade Union Responses and Campaigns

Link to GJA on-line Courses:https://greenerjobsalliance.co.uk/courses/

GJA Founder Graham Petersen:

The founder GJA Secretary and Newsletter editor was Graham Petersen who is well known to the CWU and has a long standing working relationship with the Union. He is a former TUC tutor and course designer who created safety reps training courses and the successful TUC Occupational Health & Safety Diploma Course. He was the head of the Trade Union Studies Centre at South Thames College before retirement from the post and has been a visitor and guest speaker at CWU events and meetings. After 30 editions, Graham stood down at the GJA AGM and handed over to Paul Atkin as newsletter editor and Tahir Latif as GJA Secretary. Graham remains a GJA Steering Group member and is now working part time for the Wales TUC having recently written a publication for them ‘Greener workplaces for a just transition – a Wales TUC toolkit for trade unionists’ which was circulated by the CWU Health, Safety and Environment Department.

Paul Atkin Editorial GJA Newsletter Issue 43 – ‘After the COP, now what?’

In this month’s editorial Paul Atkin is critical of the COP process where the fossil fuel companies have their roots and interests embedded in government delegations as demonstrated at last year’s COP when the Saudi Foreign Minister, said “we don’t see this as a discussion about fossil fuels’’ and a proposal from India to extend the policy of reducing coal use to cover all fossil fuels was blocked and, ‘natural gas’ was affirmed as a “transition fuel” which allowed a “dash for gas” and for the exploitation of Africa’s resources, with many gas deals sealed at the conference. Paul adds that next year’s COP28 will be held in the oil rich producing United Arab Emirates(UEA), which is like holding an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in a pub. Progress on cutting pollution now depends on the most polluting countries upping or exceeding their emission reduction targets. The EU has upped its 2030 target for renewable energy generation from 22% to 45%. China has already gone beyond its 2025 target for EVs and looks set to hit its 2030 renewables target by 2025 or 6. Australia now has better targets following the fall of its climate change denying government in the spring. Paul adds that Oxfam have exposed the fact that the rich and wealthy are increasing emissions whilst the working class are reducing emissions. He rightly adds that the current wave of strikes is about workers all having enough to live on with dignity and self-respect whilst the media attack the workers calling the pay claims as ‘unaffordable’ whilst saying nothing about the rich and powerful who share out massive profits and share dividends! Part of the struggle for a sustainable society is to turn that framing inside out and put it the right way. (GJA Editor Paul Atkin).

Contents Newsletter 43

Editorial – After COP now What?
Supporters Meeting
COP roundup
View from the Green Zone
The ITUC view
Climate protesters jailed & reporters arrested
2022 Dorje Khatri award
Cities and Just Transition
Magic retrofit ingredients
National Homes
Retrofitting Taskforce
The Cost of Living
Warm homes and insulation campaigning
Union Green Rep Networks
Former Coalfields Education Project
DEBATE: A Just Transition beyond Growth?
Films Notebook
Review: The Atom: A Love Affair
Film Premiere: The Loud Spring
Green Bites

Note: COP28 is the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference. The conference is formally known as the ‘United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties’ and this is its 28th iteration. Given that the official title is a mouthful, it is shortened to COP28 which is short for the 28th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC. It’s will be held from 30 November until 12 December 2023 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

GJA Supporters Meeting Tuesday 13 December 2022 12.00-13.30 – Greener Work: the work of the Green Bargaining Officer

Speakers include:

Jenny Patient (Yorks and Humber TUC)
Ryan Morrison (FOE Scotland)
Lara Skinner (Climate Jobs National Resource Centre, New York)
Wales TUC speaker.

Plus COP27 Report back – Jenny Cooper (NEU Executive and ITUC delegate)

And Retrofit workshop report – Linda Clarke (UCU/GJA)

This is an Online event: Contact tahirlatif51@icloud.com to register.

Film Premiere “The Loud Spring” (62 mins – labournet.tv)

Venue: The Brady Arts and Community Centre, 192-196 Hanbury St, London E1 5HU on Saturday 17 December 7:45 pm

Starring Julia Steinberger, Andreas Malm, and the Angry Workers collective, labournet.tv’s new hybrid documentary/fiction The Loud Spring, explores what change is needed to avert a climate catastrophe and why we need a powerful workers’ movement. With COP 27’s ‘failure’ and the cost of living crisis, in a situation where public awareness of the drastic consequences of climate change is growing, the film draws attention to the elephant in the room: where does the political power to change things come from? Is it direct action by a dedicated few? Is it the angry masses in Chile, the so-called Arab Spring, and the Yellow Vests in France? These movements have had significant victories, but they still have not managed to change society in any fundamental way. The Loud Spring, by using animation to imagine a possible social revolution in 2024, makes a bold step forward in helping us visualise the end of capitalism rather than the end of the world. Interviewing academics, workers, and activists, from Mexico to Sweden, the film does not present us with a blueprint or a utopia, but the basis upon which we can discuss the challenges of emancipation in the 21st century. The film screening will be followed by an open discussion with the filmmaker, the Angry Workers Collective, and Andreas Malm (Author of ‘The Progress of this Storm’ and of ‘Fossil Capital’, which won the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize).

Tickets can be booked here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-loud-spring-uk-premiere-tickets-465692628187

You can watch a short Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAWekV0Bvoo

Quote of the Month:

“We were the ones whose blood, sweat and tears financed the industrial revolution. Are we now to face double jeopardy by having to pay the cost as a result of those greenhouse gases from the industrial revolution? That is fundamentally unfair.”

(Mia Mottlet PM of Barbados)

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