ETUC anticipates green job creation under Kyoto protocol

In a March 1999 working document, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) expresses the belief that the goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, signed up to by the EU in Kyoto in December 1997, represents enormous employment creation potential, particularly in respect of energy-efficiency techniques.

For some years, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has taken an interest in the issue of climate change, both from a general concern and desire to promote sustainable development, and because of the employment potential of efforts to address climate change and reduce carbon dioxide emissions. This potential was one the of the reasons motivating ETUC to give general support to the EU's strategy at the international conferences in Kyoto (December 1997) and Buenos Aires (November 1998). It was at Kyoto that a protocol to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was agreed, setting out legally binding targets by which developed countries must reduce their combined emissions of six key "greenhouse" gases by at least 5% by 2008-2012 (the EU accepted an 8% reduction).

In a working document published in March 1999, ETUC states there is now "consensus among energy experts, labour unions and environmental associations that the intensified use of all energy-efficiency techniques will create new jobs". This consensus, says ETUC, is supported by a number of studies from a range of national institutes analysing the impact of climate change policies on employment. For example:

• the Austrian Council on Climate Change estimates that 12,200 jobs will be created in Austria through the enhancement of combined heat and power, energy efficiency, transport and renewable energies;

• the Centre for Energy Conservation and Environmental Technology in the Netherlands estimates that 71,100 jobs will be created through energy-efficiency improvement, insulation, and the promotion of wind energy; and

• according to evaluations carried out by the German Federal Environment Agency, the energy sector is poised to adopt a key employment creation role, particularly in labour-intensive sectors such as construction, mechanical engineering and crafts. The Fraunhofer Institute has identified a direct employment effect of more than 50,000 jobs from the introduction of new energy-conservation equipment in the former Federal Republic of Germany for the period from 1976-92.

ETUC believes that every step taken towards implementing the Kyoto targets should be carefully assessed. The employment consequences should be analysed first, in order to allow measures to offset eventual losses of employment in certain regions or sectors to be developed.

On the whole, ETUC anticipates that the implementation of the Kyoto targets will bring positive rather than negative employment outcomes. However, it believes that the employment potential will be realised only if the appropriate political framework is set in place. In order to achieve this, ETUC calls upon governments to pursue an "active policy of green job creation", as well as integrating environmental considerations, particularly the employment effects of energy efficiency, renewable energies and public transport initiatives, into National Action Plans for employment, based on the EU Employment Guidelines. ETUC proposes a role in evaluating the impact of climate change policies for the "observatory on industrial change" which is to be created on the basis of the recent European Commission-sponsored "Gyllenhammar report" on the economic and social impact of industrial change (EU9805106N), and for the European Environment Agency. At international level, the International Labour Organisation would be the most appropriate organisation to monitor the employment consequences of the Kyoto process.

As implementation of the Kyoto targets will change the ways in which production and work are organised, workers and their representatives must be involved in the process, according to ETUC. This involvement should take place at different levels: social dialogue between employers and trade unions (from the European down to the regional or local sectoral level); social dialogue in European multinational companies, where European Works Councils exist; and social dialogue at company and shopfloor level.