Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.Victorian Trades Hall Council. The voice of Victorian workers since 1856.

Climate Change – Union Business Too

By Brian Boyd, VTHC Secretary
11 April 2008 
The trade union movement is on the record that it wants to be part of the solution, not part of the problem, when it comes to the future of Australia and the current climate change debate.  The employers should have this view too.  Some are already coming on board.

Climate change will be a defining issue for the Rudd government, but it also will be for the State and Territory governments as well.

That is why the union movement participated in the Brumby government’s recent Climate Change Forum.
Some doomsayers have said with the ALP in Canberra and ‘wall to wall’ Labor across all the States and Territories, there will be no catalyst to really get on top of key issues like climate change.

I suggest the opposite.  This national political scenario is in fact a unique opportunity to tackle the hard environmental decisions like climate change facing Australia, head on.  There will be the inevitable clash of stakeholder agenda’s.  But overall there is a strong mandate to address global warming.  Expectations are high but frustration could easily set in, if tough choices and decisions are not made.

The core proposal on the table is for a national emissions trading scheme (ETS) to be set up.  It is suggested this will be the principle weapon to get greenhouse gas emissions reduced by making those who emit them pay heavily for the privilege.

The biggest greenhouse gas emitters in Australia are electricity generators.  They don’t believe they should pay.  This is an important issue requiring almost immediate resolution, if the ‘trading scheme’ is to get off the ground by 2010.

It is on the public record that the nations 20 plus coal fired power stations (including Loy Yang A, Loy Lang B, Yallourn W and Hazelwood), create 200 million tonnes of greenhouse gas per annum – approximately 33% of the country’s emissions.

Coal mining and power generation are crucial to areas like the Latrobe Valley.  Tackling the future role of these industries is crucial.  In fact jobs in general and the future of manufacturing in particular, could hang in the balance while the national climate change strategy is being formulated.
Australia sits on much of the worlds coal.  Up to $20 billion will be earned from exports in 2008-09.  There is a lot at stake.

In Australia, an emissions trading scheme may also cover emissions from transport (road, air) industrial processes, mining activity itself construction and even landfills.

The Federal government is oversighting the harmonisation of state and federal input into a comprehensive climate change policy.  Getting the Victorian contribution right is very important.
Protecting current jobs and moving forward to create new jobs in potentially new industries will be a trade union priority.

At the recent Climate Change Forum the Plumbers Union, Secretary Earl Setches reported on his union’s co-operation with employer bodies to train up hundreds of “green collar” plumbers to install and retrofit new green technologies in new and existing buildings.  Earl Setches told the Forum overseas developments in this area needed to be quickly adapted to Australiaand would be a significant contribution to green house gas abatement strategies.

Tony Arnel of the Victorian Building Commission also told the forum that the building industry, if everyone pulled together, could contribute to the solutions to climate change problems in numerous ways, encouraging all the skills.

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