Worker rights activists who participated in the UN’s annual climate meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, last month as members of the union observer constituency group are giving the world’s billions of working people a voice in climate negotiations and urging vigilance to ensure that climate action recognizes workers and their needs.
At COP29, labor’s major demands–including on finance, integration of a just transition work program in countries’ climate commitments and inclusion of worker rights language in all agreements–nearly all fell short.
“Worker rights is a climate justice issue. Given the acute impacts of climate change on workers, centering unions and workers within the climate discourse and national climate actions is critical. Yet, as we saw in COP29, unions and workers are often sidelined in climate decision-making,” says Jocelyn Soto Medallo, Solidarity Center climate policy specialist.
Nevertheless, reflecting the increasing urgency with which unions are organizing and responding to the climate crisis, the union delegation had more capacity than ever before to effectively and actively engage in every negotiation stream.
The union delegation, with the leadership of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), collectively represents nearly 200 million workers in 164 countries who are urging governments to prioritize climate action that supports workers’ jobs and livelihoods, and building resilient, just and carbon-neutral economies.
Solidarity Center Climate and Labor Justice Director Sonia Mistry, far right, appears with fellow panel participants who presented at COP29 side event, “Heat Stress: Protecting Workers and Increasing Resilience.” Credit: Solidarity Center
Ordinary working people, especially the most marginalized, must be represented in UN and national climate action meetings, says the worker rights delegation who attended COP29 with Solidarity Center support.
“It’s important to understand that we can and must achieve our climate goals in a way that also promotes broad access to decent work, social protection and the realization of all human rights—which critically includes worker rights. Worker rights are human rights,” says Sonia Mistry, Solidarity Center climate and labor justice director.
“Climate action must work for all, with no one left behind,” says ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle. Of 66,000 conference registrants, more than 1,770 at COP29 were fossil fuel lobbyists–in stark contrast to the 100 worker rights activists and union representatives who participated on workers’ behalf.
“Workers are dying due to the impact of climate change,” says Rebecca Okello, Central Organization of Trade Unions, Kenya (COTU-K) climate change and just transition coordinator. Credit: Solidarity Center
“There will be no climate justice without social justice,” said Rebecca Okello, Central Organization of Trade Unions, Kenya (COTU-K) climate change and just transition coordinator, who delivered a statement on behalf of unions.
“Unions influence employers to adopt green technologies and practices while securing worker rights in the transition to a low-carbon economy,” said Boitumelo Molete (center), Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) social development policy coordinator and just transition presidential climate commissioner, at COP29. Credit: Solidarity Center
All workers, and especially those who are working low-wage, precarious jobs are increasingly impacted by the effects of climate change, including permanent displacement because of flooding or drought, job loss due to climate-related economic disruptions and health risks caused by rising temperatures in outdoor and indoor workplaces, including in agricultural fields, on outdoor construction sites and in factories and offices without air conditioning.
Eche Asuzu, Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) climate change program coordinator, at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Credit: Ibrahim Manpa’a
“Climate issues are workplace issues,” says Ralph Gabin, Solidarity Center West Africa senior program officer, at COP29. “Especially as it affects workplace safety and health. “Unions have an important role to play in mitigating the impacts of climate change on the job, and in the formulation of just climate policies as well.”
The Solidarity Center participated in two Nigeria-focused side events, which addressed union involvement in the development and implementation of Nigeria’s national climate plan and just transition for workers in the oil sector. The Solidarity Center supported participation by Eche Asuzu, Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) climate change program coordinator, along with the Solidarity Center’s Gabin, Jocelyn Medallo, climate policy specialist, and Suzie Okomo, West Africa program officer, who presented or moderated.
Solidarity Center Program Officer Suzie Okomo moderates a COP29 side event advocating for a just transition for workers who are affected by climate change, energy transition and other climate policies. Credit: Ibrahim Manpa’a
Sonia Mistry presented on a panel at two COP29 side events: “Heat Stress: Protecting Workers and Increasing Resilience, moderated by U.S. Department of Labor Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs Thea Lee, and “Innovative Research Strategies for a Just Transition in the Global South, a panel hosted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), with which the Solidarity Center is a consortium partner in the IKI JET project.
Among other pressing climate goals, COP29 was the UN’s latest attempt to shepherd 200 countries into a deal on climate finance–an effort that ended with developing countries describing the amount they will receive per year in climate finance as a “paltry sum” and demanding more realistic funding.
(Photo: UN Climate Change – Kiara Worth)
Looking ahead, COP30 in Belém, Brazil–in the Amazon–will be a critical moment for the labor movement and its coalition partners across civil society to push for ambitious climate plans that center worker rights. More than ever, the critical work of national-level organizing is needed to build political will, and trade unionists amplifying worker voices within climate negotiation spaces nationally and internationally.
Of the task at hand, says Boitumelo Molete, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) social development policy coordinator, “Together, we must build a future where environmental sustainability and social equity go hand in hand.”
What Are the COPs?
The Conference of the Parties (COP) is a series of annual meetings held by the United Nations to address climate change and the principal decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was established at the first Earth Summit in 1992.
The first COP, in 1995, focused on starting negotiations to strengthen the global response to climate change. During the mid-1990s, COPs began negotiating the Kyoto Protocol, which established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. From 2011 to 2015, COPs negotiated the Paris Agreement as part of the Durban Platform, resulting in 196 national governments entering into a legally binding international treaty on climate change on December 12, 2015.
At COP28, countries agreed to launch the Loss and Damage Fund to compensate countries most vulnerable to climate change. COP 29, dubbed the “Finance COP,” put the issue of climate financing at the center of the negotiations agenda–that is, how to secure and distribute the external funding developing economies need to transition to a low-carbon and climate-resilient path.