Trade unions have always fought both for workers’ rights and for the changes needed to make society better. Now is our time to step up again - this time to protect the very conditions of life, and safety for our communities and the generations to come.

In 2024, the TUC voted to back a Year of Trade Union Climate Action, engaging with community and climate justice groups, reiterated in Motion 75 passed this year. It will kick off this autumn, with a key moment of global solidarity in November during the UN climate negotiations, COP30, in Brazil. Several national trade unions are supporting this initiative – but a really powerful year of action can only be built from the grassroots up. Sign up below for updates

NEW: Resources

For taking action on 14th November and beyond, we have a range of resources available to use and adapt including a climate quiz, solidarity posters and a template workplace survey.

Motion for trade union branches to support the year of action (and affiliate to Campaign against Climate Change)

TUC hub: Year of Trade Union Climate Action

COP30: Take action 14th & 15th November

In November, world leaders will meet for the UN climate negotiations, COP30, in Brazil, in the Amazon. Trade unions need to stand together in global solidarity with workers and communities around the world, with those in the Global South who are losing their livelihoods, homes and lives to climate disasters, and have done least to cause the crisis.

This also means demanding climate solutions which help those most in need here in the UK: decent, well-paid and unionised climate jobs; lower bills through investment in renewable energy and home insulation; affordable public transport and active travel infrastructure; cities with clean air and greenery which are resilient to heatwaves; and nature restoration.

Friday 14th November is a day for taking workplace action, coming together to demand action to tackle the climate crisis. What's best will depend on your own workplace and union, but there are various actions you could take. These include:

- taking a group solidarity photo with posters in support of trade union climate action;

- holding a stall with a climate quiz to do some myth-busting about climate and energy;

- holding a lunchtime meeting, which could focus on myth-busting and/or why the climate crisis is a union issue;

- doing a survey of what future actions people would be keen to take themselves and how they think their employer should act on climate.

Resources here. Get in touch with us to let us know what you're planning! And check with your national union whether they are planning to support members to take action on 14/15 November and for the year of action more generally (list below of motions passed by unions supporting the year of action). 

Community actions: Where several union branches are taking action you can join together after work with trade union banners in your local high street.

Union-specific:

UCU is running online CPD sessions on 'Decarbonise and Decolonise' and 'Connecting with Industry and the Local Community for Climate Justice' (open to anyone who works in the tertiary education sector)

On Saturday 15th November, demands for action on climate will be taking place across the entire world. In the UK, there will be gatherings in major cities, showing solidarity with our fellow workers in the Global South and demanding climate justice for all. Currently we know about events in London, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Southampton, Brighton, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Swansea. Find out more

A whole year of climate action

Throughout the coming year, we’ll focus on tackling the climate crisis and how this helps us all. From calling out the unjust financial system, ultra-wealthy and polluters to Make Them Pay, fuel poverty campaigning, linking climate justice to refugee and migrant rights, supporting local campaigns on public transport… through to next summer and taking action with the Heat Strike campaign on heat and working conditions and the wider health impacts of heatwaves.

Get inspired

Video from our meeting on 21 October - 'Why the Climate Crisis is an International Working Class Issue: Building Global Solidarity' (with speakers from four continents)

Video and report from our meeting on 7 May, 'The Climate Crisis is a Working Class Issue: Building a Year of Trade Union Action' 

Trade unions supporting the year of action 

The TUC Trades Councils conference has passed a motion asking all Trades Councils to coordinate and organise networks and actions in their area during the year of action.

Unison has passed a motion calling on the National Executive Council to bring climate issues to the forefront of the union’s activity including supporting the year of action (Composite E - link here to download text of motions) Unison year of green activity events calendar

Unite conference passed a motion on workers' health and safety in the face of extreme weather caused by climate change, including support for the year of action

From UCU: "At #UCU2025 we passed a vital motion backing a year of trade union climate action, starting autumn 2025. We’re embedding climate justice into our union work. Because climate justice is union business." (climate motions p12-13 here) UCU web page on the year of action

PCS conference has passed a motion instructing the NEC to bring climate issues to the forefront of the union's activity and to support a year of trade union climate action.

BFAWU Executive have agreed to actively support the year of climate action, in line with other motions and climate-related policy already passed, including support for Heat Strike campaign.

NEU conference has passed a climate motion including a commitment to support members in organising workplace events during the year of action (full text on p3 of the latest Greener Jobs Alliance newsletter)

Putting climate at the heart of the trade union movement

All workers, their families and communities are at risk from extreme temperatures and weather events, and global food shortages. We also have essential knowledge about how to build a better, safer future: a public transport system accessible to all, training young people, protecting nature, growing food, and securing a just transition for workers in high carbon sectors, moving towards public ownership of key sectors like energy.

Those who are already losing lives and livelihoods to climate breakdown have done the least to cause the problem. In the UK, as elsewhere, the worst impacts will fall on the disabled, elderly and young, racialised people and those on the lowest incomes. We need to stand together in global solidarity with workers and communities around the world, while demanding climate solutions that help those most in need here in the UK.

We’ve seen the failures of relying on privatisation and market solutions. We need climate jobs; investment in renewable energy and home insulation as the only way to get energy bills down and keep them down; we need to move towards public ownership and democratic control of energy and other crucial services. What we don’t need is another decade of austerity.

The ultra-wealthy and corporate media claim to speak for working people but are only interested in lining their pockets. They want to scrap regulations that protect workers, keep our air and water clean and tackle climate change. We can only oppose them successfully by coming together and organising, within our workplaces, across sectors, and in communities, raising our voices to demand action.

With this year of action we hope to see a decisive shift away from the outdated idea that we must choose between jobs and protecting the climate, with an emphasis in the trade union movement on the climate crisis as a working class issue that affects us all, and the need for a just transformation of our society to tackle climate breakdown. We want to give confidence to trade union members to take action in their workplaces and their communities, and to strengthen links between trade unions and environmental and social justice campaigners - winning campaigns on local and national issues and extending global solidarity to workers around the world on the frontline of climate breakdown.