Workers Seek ‘Just Transition’ to Green Economy in Cancun Climate Talks

AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council Director Bob Baugh is a member of a global union delegation led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) attending the new round of United Nations climate change negotiations in Cancun, Mexico. This is the first of a series of blogs on the talks.

After the acrimonious climate change talks in Copenhagen last December and in Bonn last June, delegates to the 16th meeting of the Committee of the Parties (COP 16) come to the table in Cancun with reduced expectations. The delegates hope these climate talks will result in specific decisions that can serve as stepping stones for the next major meeting on climate change (COP 17) in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2012.

In particular, the global union members here in Cancun are focusing on making sure our “just transition” ideals are included in a final global climate change treaty. A “just transition” to a green economy means workers would have the right to a voice in their workplace, the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively and access to training on the latest technology. Since December 2009, affiliates of the AFL-CIO and the unions of the ITUC have been lobbying our respective governments to build off those areas of agreement they reached in Copenhagen.

The past year has been a roller coaster ride. The talks in Copenhagen showed the practical difficulty of negotiating with 180 countries in public. Two weeks of negotiations stalled. It took an intense day-long meeting of 30 heads of state, including President Obama, to finally agree to the Copenhagen Accord.

Many were disappointed that the Copenhagen talks did not result in a full treaty. A small group of countries—Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Sudan—refused to sign the accord and continue to agitate against it within the United Nations.

There was, however, significant progress on some of the most difficult issues during the talks in Copenhagen, including a breakthrough on transparency—the ability to measure, report and verify the status of greenhouse gas emissions.

Both in Copenhagen and in Bonn, broad agreement also was reached on the need for the participation of civil society groups such as unions in decision making on climate change and the acceptance of just transition language.

Our goal here in Cancun now is to make sure that delegates take the next step and decide to include the agreed-on “just transition” language in the treaty and the sections related to implementations as well.