Future Perfect

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eople

social

inclusion

green

jobs

education

Providing clean and safe energy for all is fundamental for a

sustainable planet. Access to sustainable forms of energy must be

enshrined in the mandates of public authorities. We must not leave

this as a responsibility of the private sector. We support universal

access to a basic minimum level of modern, clean and safe energy

services for both consumption and production uses by 2020 and

targets for improving energy efficiency at all levels, with a view to

achieving a 50 per cent decrease in energy intensity by 2020.

Access to water is fundamental to sustainable development and

is a basic human right. The overuse or pollution of water and frag-

mentation of freshwater systems is contributing to reduced quality

of life and increasing instability. Governments must ensure sustain-

able water resource management delivers for the protection and

provision of water services vital for human well-being, biodiversity,

economies and security. Both water and energy are essential rights

and need to be provided as essential public services.

With our NGO allies, we support solutions to the challenges

of food and energy security and demand both conservation and

governance solutions to the challenges posed by the degradation of

our oceans and the threat of water shortages throughout vast areas

of the world.

The good news is that investment in these initiatives means new

and additional jobs.

RIO+20 can make a difference

The world needs to reorient economic priorities towards a new

prosperity for all that respects the human rights of all people and

respects the planet’s critical natural resource boundaries. This is

the basis of the emerging discussion on Sustainable Development

Goals (SDG). As part of the process of developing global goals,

governments, international institutions, business and civil society

need to commit together to a framework where democratic govern-

ance, labour and human rights are respected, and gender equality

achieved. Goals focused on decent work, employment

and social protection for all are fundamental to achiev-

ing sustainable development.

The world’s leaders must accept the urgent need for

transition to a sustainable and environmentally respect-

ful and inclusive economy and direct the process of

transition. Trade unions are working to ensure that

these transformational changes in production and

consumption systems are just and that decent work is

safeguarded and promoted. The principles of the green

economy must be vastly different from those governing

the economies of today.

ITUC argues that the key principles at the heart of

any discussion on a green economy must include equity

between and within countries, opportunities for women

and young workers, decent work for all people includ-

ing formalizing the informal economy and a social

protection floor for all. The ‘Just Transition’ approach

which acknowledges and secures the livelihoods and

jobs of those whose sectors might be affected is central

to these principles.

ITUC, representing the world’s working people and

their unions, calls on leaders to invest in green jobs, to

fund the implementation of a universal social protection

floor and to raise global funding to support these ambi-

tions, beginning with the introduction of a financial

transactions tax. This tax would raise vital resources

and contribute to a more just and equitable world.

Investment in green and decent jobs

In the face of the most bitter crisis in unemploy-

ment, investment in green jobs is urgent. ITUC’s

research, based on the analysis of 12 countries –

Green and decent jobs go hand in hand. Workers at the rally in Durban, South Africa,

during COP17, November 2011

Climate Change is Union Business. As simple as that!