Forging a green social contract: A must-do for Asia’s labor movements

‘green-minded” politicians in the world have been spouting about the importance of a “green new deal” (gnd), or a blueprint to stop the catastrophic global warming of Planet earth. They are joined by Ceos who have embraced a green Csr framework in corporate operations.

The discourse on GND is loudest in Europe and North America. Recently, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Werner Hoyer, president of the European Investment Bank, reiterated the call of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) for a “global green deal” on the de-carbonization of the world in order to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5-degree Celsius. The two are proposing investments in green energy solutions, breakthrough green technologies (such as clean hydrogen and green energy storage), and circular energy (with focus on the re-use or recycling of materials).

In the United States, Washington’s commitment to the Paris Agreement of 2015 on climate change has been revived with the election of Joe Biden. He appointed John Kerry, a strong advocate of clean energy, as America’s climate ambassador. Further, Biden declared his administration’s goal of pushing for a $2 trillion investment package for clean energy to make America’s electricity carbonfree by 2035 and for the country to achieve net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050.

But within the Democratic Party of Biden, there are voices calling for even much bolder measures. One of them is Alexandria Ocasio-cortez, who has been articulating the message of the young visionary leaders of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA): climate change is a labor issue. Ocasio-cortez, a waitress-turned-congresswoman in New York, has a resolution seeking a “10year national mobilization” to reduce carbon emissions. The mobilization program envisions the following critical components:

n Sourcing of electricity only from renewable and zero-emissions power plants,

n Building or upgrading “smart” power grids,

n Building resiliency against climate-change risks and disasters,

n Restoring forests to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere,

n Working with farmers to cut emissions from the agricultural sector, and

n Creation of millions of highwage jobs in a green economy.

The rationale for the DSA’S GND is well-articulated in the book A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal, written by Kate Aronoff, Alyssa Battistoni, Daniel Cohen and Thea Riofrancos.

The existential climate change threat is a labor issue and requires solutions in support of the working people. In short, a GND is meaningless if the social and labor dimensions are not spelled out. A GND is inextricably linked to finding solutions to other societal problems such as poverty, unemployment and inequality.

The GND, as advanced by Ocasiocortez and the DSA, has received the support of the International Trade Union Council and workers’ movements in a number of countries. The ITUC itself has a long-running campaign enlisting workers and other segments of society to join the global campaign against global warming. The ITUC explained that there are “no jobs on a dead planet.” It summarized beautifully the critical importance of the battle against climate change as follows:

“WE know the science is unequivocal—the world’s temperature is rising, current trends will lead us to a 4 degrees celsius average increase or more in this century and without urgent, ambitious action we will face irreversible changes in our climate.

“WE have policy—the ITUC wants the world’s governments to agree on climate action and give us a fighting chance to limit the temperature rise to 2 degrees or less.

“WE are out of time—climaterelated catastrophes such as cyclones, f loods, drought, fires, melting glaciers, season changes and more are increasing and hurting working people now. Their impacts will only become stronger within 15 years— this will destroy more communities and jobs.

“WE demand industrial transformation—science tells us we need to urgently stabilize carbon emissions at 44 Gigatonnes. Business as usual gets us to 59 Gigatonnes by 2020. It doesn’t add up. All our economic sectors must change. We demand to be part of the industrial transformation with universal access to breakthrough technologies that will make our industries and our jobs sustainable for workers everywhere.

“WE demand a just transition— We have played our role in UN negotiations and fought and won commitments to ‘Just Transition.’ Now we want to see the transition happen on the ground, including through investment in new green jobs, skills, income protection and other necessary measures implemented everywhere, with adequate funding for the poorest and most vulnerable of nations.”

Fine. The problem is that the workers’ movements in the Philippines and other Asian countries are not making the same level of noise being created by the GND labor advocates in America and Europe. GND is often seen as the advocacy of the do-gooders among the consciencestricken business people, middleclass environmentalists, Church activists, concerned academics, investigative journalists and environmental conservationists. Governments readily call for tripartite conferences on minimum wage and employment issues, and yet, there are hardly any on climate change.

Fleshing out the GND is also problematic. In Asia, the call of UNEP for a global GND is interpreted to be mainly a plea to governments to reduce the GHG emissions issue on a country by country basis. Hence, the numerous discussions, seminars and conferences are on energy transition and exclude representatives of the trade and peasant unions, informal sector associations, transport workers’ organizations, urban poor and indigenous people movements and other organized groups at the grassroots.

To repeat, climate change is a labor issue. To tame the climate change risks, we can only agree with Ocasiocortez, national mobilization involving the working people is a must.