Skip to main content
NEU job vacancy
Do trade unions have energy for change?
Unions cannot afford to allow the climate change debate to become one of saving jobs versus saving the environment – they are not mutually exclusive, writes BERT SCHOUWENBURG

AGAINST a backdrop of floods and heatwaves of unprecedented magnitude and frequency all over the world, the latest report from the UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issues a stark warning that immediate action must be taken on emissions to prevent global warming exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, if a global catastrophe is to be averted. 

Its sobering assessment will set the scene at the forthcoming Cop26 climate change conference in Glasgow, scheduled to commence at the end of October after being postponed from last year because of the Covid pandemic, where representatives of the international trade union movement will be in attendance.

Many of those unions are affiliated to Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED), established in 2012 and based in New York City. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
A bus under construction at the Alexander Dennis bus manufacturers in Falkirk
Voices of Scotland / 17 June 2025
17 June 2025

As bus builder Alexander Dennis threatens Falkirk closure and Grangemouth faces ruthless shutdown by tax exile Jim Ratcliffe, RICHARD LEONARD MSP warns that global corporations must be resisted by a bold industrial strategy based on public ownership

FUTURE FUEL: A hydrogen sports car at the Brussels auto show
Science and Society / 15 January 2025
15 January 2025
Natural hydrogen gas could be a replacement for fossil fuels, but its extraction could see developing nations face familiar patterns of land loss and resource theft, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
A child rides a bike at Whitelee Windfarm in East Renfrewshi
Britain / 13 December 2024
13 December 2024
But Unite warns that Labour has ‘missed a golden opportunity to bring the national grid under public ownership’