Trumka Calls for Just Transition to Green Economy

by James Parks, Sep 22, 2009

The union and environmental movements must act together to reduce carbon emissions, stabilize climate change and reverse practices that put our very survival at risk, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said. Trumka and the new AFL-CIO leadership team are on a multi-state listening tour, talking with workers—and taking on Wall Street and the big health insurance industry.

Speaking last night at the Jobs, Justice and Climate conference sponsored by the New York Society for Ethical Culture, Trumka said the union movement is committed to ending our dependence on foreign oil and reversing the threat of climate change by transforming the way Americans use energy.

We have much common ground—in fact, a fragile planet of common ground.

The strategies to change U.S. energy sources means developing wind and solar power, rehabbing buildings to conserve energy and creating electrical smart grids, Trumka said. It also will require creating a new energy-efficient transportation fleet and expanding mass transit.

But making the best use of less popular energy sources such as coal also must be in the mix, he said. A former coal miner, Trumka said he believes there is an important role for clean coal as we transition to carbon-free energy sources.

I think that no matter what we do in the United States, the only alternative to clean coal is not no coal, it’s dirty coal.

He also said we should consider using nuclear energy as a viable large-scale, noncarbon option for electricity.

Trumka told the audience the current economic crisis offers a good time to begin to develop alternative energy sources:

[We need to] act to address the climate and energy crisis by creating good green jobs [and] in the process we will revive our economy.

If we take on climate change at scale, we will create jobs at scale. For every $100 billion invested in a green economy, we create 1 million new jobs

We need to change and move toward a new green economy based on good jobs.

Climate change is not just a U.S. problem, Trumka added. It is a global threat.  “It will not help anyone if we change by offshoring our emissions.”

That’s why goods produced in nations that do not abide by carbon emission restrictions should be subject to border adjustment tariffs to offset the loss. I don’t see any other way to be serious about global carbon emissions reduction. Anything else will simply relocate the emissions.

This is one of our proposals to the G-20 summit this week. Our Pittsburgh Declaration [is] a call to make jobs central to economic recovery,  to boost manufacturing and regulate trade.

A long-term investment in creating green jobs is part of a “just transition” that protects workers in the shift toward a green economy, Trumka said.

Under a just transition program, workers have the right to a voice in their workplace, the right to organize and bargain collectively and access to training on the latest technology.

That is the hope for us as we look forward to ringing in a new progressive era: that the transition to renewable energy is a process that looks out for people as well as it looks out for the environment.

Read Trumka’s speech here.

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