With just a few days to go before COP 21 gets underway, unions worried over the consequences of climate change for jobs across the globe are appealing for any climate agreement to include a commitment for a ‘fair transition’. By ‘fair transition’ is meant meeting the challenges of the changing nature of work especially coping with jobs losses of the type that the southern countries have already experienced, supporting job creation in new sectors (such as recycling), and ensuring the conversion of employment areas with currently high energy consumption levels and highly dependent on fossil fuels.
“First affected have been the southern countries. These areas are losing jobs in agriculture, forestry, and tourism. Climate change is also upsetting infrastructures and indirectly affecting other sectors including textiles and the auto sector, as a result of breakdowns in supply chains,” explained Anabella Rosemberg, Policy Officer on Environment and Occupational Health and Safety of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). The 2004 tsunami in Thailand greatly affected its economy;
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