Motions proposed by Unison and PCS would commit the Trade Union movement to the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuel and invest in climate jobs. The GMB has proposed amendments which if accepted would remove this clear commitment to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels. 

This is an important moment for TUC delegates to support motions which would give impetus to putting the climate crisis at the top of the TU agenda and seriously get behind demanding an urgent transition with huge investment in the jobs which could make a difference.

The GMB amendments should be rejected. We need a clear and unambiguous commitment to end fossil fuels in line with the urgency of the climate crisis. 

The details of the motions and debates are covered in the Green Jobs Alliance (GJA) special newsletter which poses the questions - 'Will our movement be on the right side of the science and the right side of history after the TUC Congress this year?' This is essential reading for all and especially for TUC delegates. 

The GMB flesh out their support for gas in a motion on industrial strategy, this is a motion which would, if passed, disastrously demand continued fossil fuel investment by the government. Unite's motion on the transition in North Sea oil and gas fields has adopted the slogan, 'no ban without a plan'. But we need both. A ban cannot not be counterposed to a plan, both are urgent and necessary. The detail of these motions are discussed in the GJA newsletter, and the full TUC agenda is here (climate motions from p15 onwards)

Further reading: CACCTU response to Unite's campaign

Delegates welcome to join our fringe meeting

Sun 8th Sept: What should a new government do for jobs and climate in a climate crisis?

Sunday 8th September, 6.30-7.45pm, Meeting room 1c, Brighton Centre, hosted by CACCTU

The climate crisis is a class and trade union issue, already impacting the lives and livelihoods of working class people globally. Tackling it requires urgent action on fossil fuels and active leadership across the union movement is essential.  This is not an issue any trade unionist can ignore. 

An end to fossil fuels, a just transition and a plan to deliver this and huge public investment in the transformation of the economy have never been more urgent.

Speakers:

• Daniel Kebede, General Secretary, NEU
• John Moloney, Assistant General Secretary, PCS
• Liz Wheatley, Unison
• Nick Mead, BFAWU

Chaired by Suzanne Jeffery, CACCTU

Labour has swept to power on a wave of disillusionment and anger at the Conservative Party. It’s an opportunity to fix much that has been broken in this country, to build a fairer society, and also to take urgent action on the existential threat of climate breakdown, which is already causing destruction around the world, hitting those who have done least to cause the crisis hardest.

We need to invest in the future

For decades the level of public investment in the UK has been significantly lower than that of comparable countries. The Labour government has promised to deliver tangible improvements to people’s lives; to repair the damage to public services caused by austerity; and to get the UK back on track to address the climate crisis. These are all essential, but if public spending continues to be constrained to austerity levels, it is hard to see how these aspirations can succeed.

We need a workforce for the climate emergency

Any credible strategy to tackle the climate crisis needs to also be a jobs strategy, as set out for example in the Campaign against Climate Change’s 2021 report, Climate Jobs: Building a Workforce for the Climate Emergency. There are jobs to be created around the country - in insulating homes and installing heat pumps, in public transport, in renewable energy, in shifting to a zero waste economy, repairing, reusing and recycling. And in the rural economy, where farming is already being hit by climate breakdown.

The climate crisis demands that we need a rapid transition away from fossil fuels and no new oil and gas exploration or infrastructure. Jobs in North Sea oil extraction have already halved in the past decade, a trend which will inevitably continue as reserves decline. A just transition plan, shifting to renewable energy that can give this country genuine energy security, is not just needed for the climate, it is essential to protect these workers and communities.

A CACCTU response to Unite’s “No Ban Without a Plan” campaign.

Launched on 17th of May, Unite’s No Ban Without a Plan campaign aims “to ensure that a future Labour government drops its planned ban on new licences for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, until a genuine programme for the just transition of work is operational”. 

As an organisation campaigning for climate justice, our response to this is unequivocal. 

We stand in full solidarity with militant action to ensure that the transition away from oil and gas is one that is fair to workers and their communities: protecting incomes, providing good new jobs on at least equivalent terms and conditions, and guaranteeing furlough where there are unavoidable gaps in employment or where a worker needs to retrain. 

Equally, we stand in solidarity with the millions of workers, worldwide and in the UK, whose livelihoods, homes and lives are threatened or have already been destroyed by the climate impacts of fossil fuel burning. A ban on new licences, as part of a phase-out of fossil fuel extraction, is therefore non-negotiable; it is not a bargaining chip, a 'concession' to be granted or withdrawn, but an existential necessity for all of us.

On the positive side, the campaign hints at movement in Unite’s position on oil and gas - a recognition that a transition away from fossil fuels is both necessary and inevitable, and can, with the right policies and investment, be achieved without mass job losses. A move towards identifying and bargaining around the terms of such a transition certainly looks like a step forward.

However, we have serious concerns about the rhetoric framing the campaign. We also feel that it misrepresents the situation in the North Sea in some significant ways:

1. A ban on new licences, as promised in Labour’s election manifesto, will not in itself make a significant difference to continuing extraction. It usually takes more than ten years from licence issue for a field to start production, and they have said they do not intend to revoke the large number of licences already issued. These include the vast Rosebank field, whose reserves, if burned, would generate more than the combined annual emissions of the 28 poorest countries. This is not a particularly strong climate policy, nor is it in any way an immediate threat to jobs. 

2. North Sea oil and gas are already in sharp decline. The Scottish Herald reported last November that 200,000 jobs supported by the North Sea oil and gas sector had been lost over the last decade. The real threat to jobs is not having a transition plan for the energy sector and its workforce.

3. As regards ‘energy security’, even the UK government acknowledges that 80% of oil from new fields such as Rosebank would be traded on international markets, making very little difference to prices or to the proportion of oil products used in the UK that come from UK waters. The amount of oil from new licences sent to UK refineries would account for less than 1% of the fuels used in the UK in 2030.

As for the language used, we believe it plays too readily into the populist demonisation of climate action as an authoritarian assault on workers’ freedoms and standards of living, which ignores both the threat climate breakdown presents to workers and their own agency in shaping a transition.