Bonn Climate Talks: UN Co-Chairs Failing Workers, Jeopardising Climate Action

photo: Photo: Zoe Caron

With only five days of official negotiation before the beginning of the November climate summit in Paris, the ITUC deplores the absence of reference to the need to secure a Just Transition, with decent work opportunities for workers, in the operational part of the climate deal.

ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow said, “Governments from industrialised and developing countries have expressed on several occasions, formally and informally, their strong support for this language in the Bonn negotiations which finished this week. Despite this and the massive consensus in favour of Just Transition, the UN co-chairs and facilitators are trying to push for a climate deal that ignores the obvious need to involve working people and their communities in delivering a low-carbon future. Failure to involve them puts the effort to stem climate change at risk.”

With governments and civil society now expecting to see a new version of the draft climate deal by early October, trade unions are increasingly concerned at the current draft’s lack of ambition both for workers and the planet.

“Trade unions will be meeting in a week’s time for the first ever global trade union climate summit. Our commitment to transforming our economies so that we fight unemployment, inequalities and climate change in a coherent fashion is clear. Governments must show from now on, including in Paris, that this is also their objective”, said Burrow.