What contribution can or must working time reduction play in reducing carbon emissions?A new ETUI article asks whether we can, and whether we must, work less to pollute less
After examining different scenarios, the only strategy that appears commensurate with the normative views set out in the paper, i.e. meeting emissions targets while maintaining employment – seems to be a combination of radical efforts to accelerate the decoupling of emissions from economic growth and considerably more substantial reductions in average working hours than have been the norm in recent decades.
Andrew Watt, senior researcher at the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) when writing this Paper, argues that only if the required decoupling acceleration can be achieved, our children and grandchildren can enjoy decent living standards and high levels of employment, along with considerably greater free time, while dramatically reducing Europe’s carbon emissions.
This analysis serves to indicate the scale of the challenge facing policymakers in meeting climate protection goals without losing sight of widely accepted goals such as decent living standards and job opportunities. Incremental changes in business models and individual, corporate and government behaviour will be woefully inadequate. Quantum leaps are required and economic, social and technological policies will have to be aligned to this overarching policy goal.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) organizes the International Labour Conference (ILC) annually. Among other agenda items, general discussion at the 102nd session will take place on "Sustainable development, decent work and green jobs
The Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food called for the post-2015 development agenda to be urgently refocused on equality, social protection and accountability, as the efforts of the UN Open Working Group on the Sustainable Development Goals to draft post-2015 targets to succeed the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) entered a crucial phase.
Many of the major companies file their sustainability reports without conscience. And their approach to the workers whose labour fuels their profits is criminal.Ask any CEO if they would like their sons or daughters to work in the textile factories in Pakistan, the mines in the Congo, manufacturing plants in Central America, or as beer women in Cambodia, and they shudder.
The decision was adopted in response to EU Commission consultation on unconventional fossil fuels in Europe
