 
IBEW Joins Union Delegates at U.N.
Climate Change Conference
December 2008, Electrical Worker
 More than 20,000 delegates from more than 190 nations will meet in Poland this month for a 10-day United Nations Climate Change Conference to mull a new international agreement to combat global warming and environmental disaster.
Directly participating in the key working sessions of the conference is a contingent of 20 North American union representatives, including IBEW Utility Department Director Jim Hunter, who are working to ensure that workers’ rights and good jobs are a key part of the final agreement.
“We need to be there and have a seat at the table, because the decisions made at this conference will affect our members and their jobs for many years to come,” Hunter said.
The conference, December 1-12 in Pozan, aims to create a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 climate accord intent on reducing the emission of greenhouse gases by industrialized nations. The protocol is set to expire in 2012. Organizers hope to reach a final agreement by next year’s conference in Denmark.
With a new pact, participants aim to correct a fatal flaw in the Kyoto accord: it only applies to nations that signed it – which doesn’t include the United States, China or India. That allows companies in signatory nations to shift production overseas in order to avoid emission limits, costing jobs and harming the environment.
“It’s a lose-lose situation, and we want to work to prevent that in the current round of negotiations,” Hunter said.
The IBEW has been getting a lot of attention from the global labor movement due to its joint proposal with the IBEW-represented American Electric Power to use trade as an incentive for rapidly industrializing countries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Elements of the IBEW-AEP plan were incorporated into climate change legislation introduced in the Senate last year by Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Republican John Warner of Virginia. The bill failed to garner enough votes to break a potential filibuster, but the use of trade sanctions in the fight against global warming has stoked interest on Capitol Hill.
“It’s put the IBEW front and center of the world stage, because everyone knows that we have to find a way of getting China and India on board with any agreement,” Hunter said.
Under the IBEW’s plan, nations that haven’t signed on to a greenhouse gas-limiting agreement would have to buy carbon dioxide credits to sell their products in the United States and other participating nations.
Starting with last year’s conference in Bali, Indonesia, union representatives now participate in major working sessions of the conference – normally open only to governmental officials and recognized non-governmental organizations – allowing labor to help shape the rules that will combat global warming.
Working through the International Trade Union Confederation, which represents 168 million working men and women in 153 countries, the U.S. labor delegation will develop a common position with labor unions around the world that will be used to lobby conference delegates.
“We have a unique role to play,” said Bob Baugh, executive director of the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and chair of its energy task force. “We are looking at the socio-economic impact of the solution to the climate crisis to see how it can be turned into an opportunity to create good jobs.”
Another concern of the IBEW is developing a framework that can provide a realistic timetable for the reduction of greenhouse gases that won’t disrupt the American economy and lead to layoffs. “We need to have enough time to create a new energy infrastructure, like clean-coal, nuclear, solar and wind,” Hunter said. “We are at the beginning of the process in this country but it will take more time before we can realistically hope to see the carbon dioxide reductions demanded by Kyoto.”
To get daily updates from Pozan, check out the AFL-CIO blog at http://blog.aflcio.com.
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