One Million Climate Jobs

On Saturday 12 May, the Climate Jobs Caravan tour of Britain started, with two caravans setting off simultaneously from London and Edinburgh. Based on the Million Climate Jobs report, produced with the assistance of the CWU, PCS, TSSA & UCU trade unions, the Caravan highlighted how creating climate jobs can help us tackle the twin crises of the ecomony and climate change. Read about the events in all the different towns and cities we visited here.

To find out more about local campaigning on climate jobs, contact the Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union Group.

This inspiring video sets out the caravan's message:

A DVD is available with this video in higher resolution along with a longer (33 min) version with more technical detail. This can be purchased for £6 inc. P&P from Reel News.

  One Million Climate Jobs pamphlet

This sets out how and why the government must create one million climate jobs – in renewable energy, refitting buildings, public transport, industry and education – and how this can be done. The pamphlet was updated in 2010 and in this time of austerity and job losses it is more relevant than ever. The fight for climate jobs brings together a solution for the economic and the environmental crisis.

The pamphlet can be purchased from Bookmarks for £2.50 or downloaded free. For supporting technical information see here. 

Contact climatetradeunion@googlemail.com for more information. Also see www.climate-change-jobs.org.

One million climate jobs is a massively ambitious goal, we agree and at first sight it will look unrealistic to many. But we are facing an emergency and we need to start making the seemingly impossible - possible. What we are really talking about is a massive effort to transform the economy, along the lines, and on the scale, of what has previously been acheived in war time - in the US, for instance, in 1941 when  car factories were transformed into tank factories inside a few months - and when the whole economy was turned around to concentrate solely on producing materials for the war effort in a very short time. We need something similar but this time it will be an economy focussed on preventing catstrophic climate change rather than on waging war - and we will concentrate on achieving a low or zero carbon economy as soon as possible. This will need a lot of work done in a very short time and this will neccessarily mean jobs - lots of jobs.

Many in government will tell you we need to be making cuts - but the lesson of previous recessions is that it was not cuts but well targeted spending than lifted us out of recession. We need a massive investment in a green economy - and the planet we live on - now !

The Peoples' Petition for a Million Climate Jobs

The Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group has launched a “People’s Petition for a Million Climate Jobs”. It calls on the Government to give “urgent and serious consideration” to the recommendations of the Million Climate Jobs report and lists its key points. It is backed by a growing number of MPs and national trade unions.

Save Vestas Campaign

In 2009, the closure of the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight brought climate campaigners and trade union activists together as workers facing redundancy occupied the factory. The Campaign against Climate Change helped rally supporters at protests on the Isle of Wight and in London. Read more here.