Climate Change Awareness
Photo: Paul Atkin
Module 4: Getting involved in campaigning
Getting involved in Campaigning
After the Paris Agreement, there was a surge of mass campaigning, with the worldwide student revolt and the eruption of XR non violent direct action, which helped lead to climate concerns being more widely institutionalised. After Parliament voted to recognise the climate emergency in 2019, most local authorities followed suit and you will probably be living in one that will have local net zero targets and plans, none of which are sufficiently funded, but all of which help.
This is encouraging the myriads of local groups with climate concerns to coordinate to negotiate with their local councils or Metro Mayors on issues like air quality in the streets and at work, cheaper or free bus and metro fares, traffic restriction or calming around schools, cycle lanes, roadside trees and grass verges (and in some cases guerilla gardening), libraries of things, retrofits of public buildings and housing.
Trades Councils can and should connect with these campaigns so there are union voices within them and to take them into workplaces and push for a more strategic approach. In particular, retrofit campaigns for homes are still following a tried and failed model of market led incentives; instead of funding local authorities to carry out street by street structural retrofits, taking advantage of economies of scale and carried out by a directly employed workforce educated to a high standard of technical capacity and climate awareness in local FE colleges – so there is a synergy between local communities, workers, councils and colleges that transforms a technical operation into a social transformation.
There are a large number of campaigns from Friends of the Earth to the Campaign Against Climate Change, which has produced the excellent Climate Jobs: Building a workforce for the climate emergency Report, while the Climate Justice Coalition coordinates across the movement.
A good place to start getting involved is to subscribe to the Greener Jobs Alliance Newsletter, which comes out free every month, with discussion blogs in between, to keep you up to date with arguments to debunk the blizzard of misinformation now coming from most of the daily press, and abreast of discussions and debates in the movement.
Trade Union Clean Air Network (TUCAN)
A coalition of 13 major unions, the Greener Jobs Alliance (GJA), the Hazards Campaign and others set up a network to highlight the link between climate change and air pollution at work.
The TUCAN Charter emphasises that air pollution is as much an occupational health emergency as a public health one. TUCAN is backed by a free online training course (available on the GJA website) and has the support of most of the unions in the energy, transport and education sectors.
See also the TUCAN guide for union reps and a 3 module Air Pollution course
Check out the TUCAN section of this website.
Getting involved at work
Workplaces are a great place to start! At work, we use up energy and resources, generate waste, and our work journeys and deliveries all add to our ‘carbon footprint.’
Raising complicated issues like climate change where you work can be tricky. But there are some fairly easy ways to get started, such as energy saving or recycling schemes, made all the easier if you work together with others at work, and if you have a willing employer!
Speak to your Rep or local Secretary about organising a climate change awareness-raising event or by booking a speaker at a wider union event during the Year of Action this year.
Here is a list of suggestions, some of which you might want to consider. If you are a member of a union, you could:
- Check out your union’s website. Is there an environment page? Has your union got a policy on green reps?
- If your branch doesn’t have a green rep, consider becoming one. Many unions will offer support and provide training.
- Speak to fellow workers about saving energy by turning off unnecessary equipment and lights.
- Look at how waste is managed in the organisation. Could more be done to cut down on unnecessary waste?
- Find out what your fellow workers’ opinions and concerns are about environmental issues in the workplace.
- Speak to your green rep or learning rep about organising a climate change awareness-raising event or use an existing event to promote the One Million Climate Jobs campaign by booking a speaker or selling the pamphlets.
- Ask your union to affiliate to one of the campaigns mentioned above.
Unions are in a unique position to lead on environmental and energy efficiency in the workplace and encourage changes in behaviour. Employers should be aware of this and see that improving their environmental performance is an investment for the future.
If there is no union at your workplace, you can still raise environmental issues, whether it’s around energy-saving, cutting down on waste, recycling, transport, safe and healthy working environments. If there are other workers sharing your concerns, you could form an environment group to raise awareness and act together.
Suggest an environmental audit of the workplace.
The TUC has produced a Greener workplaces for a Just Transition Toolkit to help you do this. It includes tools and resources like these that you can adapt with colleagues to suit your workplace
- Example greener workplaces survey
- Transport review survey
- Quick checklists
- Model green claim
- Model joint environment and climate change agreement
- Climate emergency declaration checklist
- Transition agreement/model green new deal (GND) letter
- Green/environment rep appointment form
- Extreme weather and model collective agreement
- Sources of further information
One Million Climate Jobs
In the previous module, we heard trade unionists and climate activists at the Paris Summit talk of the importance of working together and with other social movements to tackle the climate crisis.
The One Million Climate Jobs campaign was set up by trade unionists working within the CACC. This campaign calls on the government to create a million climate jobs to solve both the economic and environmental crises. It is supported by a number of national unions, including UNITE, the National Union of Students (NUS), and climate activists and experts.
Here is a section from their report outlining their key demands:
‘We need workers to build enough wind power, solar power, wave power and tidal power to meet all our energy needs. We need workers to insulate and retrofit all our existing homes and buildings in order to conserve energy. And we need workers to run a massive public transport system powered by renewable electricity.
We have people who need jobs, and jobs that must be done. So we want the government to hire a million people to do new climate jobs now in an integrated National Climate Service.
Our estimate is that those workers could cut our CO2 emissions by 86% in twenty years. We can also create another half a million jobs in the supply line. And we can guarantee a new job to anyone who loses their job because of these changes.’
Getting involved outside the workplace
Your place of work is part of a wider community. Your employer may even have policies that support community engagement. Check whether:
- there are any current links with campaigns and community groups
- there are any local issues/campaigns that you can link to your workplace. For example air quality, transport policies, renewable energy and energy efficiency
- your pension fund has investments in fossil fuels. Web sites like ShareAction and Fossil Free can help you with this
- your union branch is affiliated to the local trades union council
In Conclusion
Climate change is a growing concern for all of us. We don’t need to be scientists to talk with others about climate change. It’s much more important to talk about our own experiences and concerns. Sometimes it’s easy to wonder, when a problem is so huge, whether individuals can make any difference at all. But the small changes we make and the actions we take as consumers and citizens, using the power we have, do matter. It matters how we live our lives.
The need to live in harmony with the natural world which gives us everything, even a sense of beauty, is the subject of the following 5 minute film. It features Jeremy Irons and Maxine Peake and is written by Michael Morpurgo. It touchingly reminds us of the wonders of Earth and all that we stand to lose if we don’t halt climate change and take care of our world.
The Man Who Mends Things
The Man Who Mends Things, created during her time as Ignite Somerset Artist in Residence, draws upon Ann Farley’s own experience of the impact of climate change on the natural environment. Through the medium of stop motion animation, Ann has created a film that is both profoundly beautiful and thought provoking.