Working Lives Research Institute
Nigel Morter, Dr Sian Moore
September - December 2007
TUC
The TUC commissioned the Working Lives Research Institute to provide research exploring and setting out a vision of what a just transition to a low carbon economy might look like from the point of view of trade unions and the workers they represent. It acknowledged that change, in terms of employment and work, is necessary. Yet, it recognised the difficulties that there are for workers and unions in facing the possibility that the employment upon which they depend might be unsustainable and the importance of creating secure routes to alternative sustainable jobs and working lives. It stressed the necessity for advanced planning, a process to which unions and their members must be central. The research considered the existing literature on the concept of Just Transition, much of it emanating from north America. It drew upon the experience and activity of European unions in addressing the issue of climate change and located best practice in the area. The research then reflected a number of interviews with key actors in the UK, including officers from key unions anticipating the effects of climate change, advisers to government on environmental transition and representatives of NGOs and policy think tanks. These interviews raised both fears and hopes about the reality of the impact of environmental change and alternative futures. The research discussed the policy implications of these visions for unions and government and concluded by setting out the principles upon which a just transition to a low carbon economy might rest.
The research provided the basis for the TUC’s Touchstone pamphlet, A Green and Fair Future: For a Just Transition to a Low Carbon Economy.