Climate change: the European Trade Union Confederation calls on the G8 countries to shoulder their responsibility
The world’s richest countries are the ones which have made the biggest contribution towards global warming. Yet this warming will have a greater effect on the least well-off countries. The G8 members therefore need to show the way by urgently adopting the objectives of keeping the global temperature rise to under 2°C this century and halving their emissions by 2050.
Last March, the European Union made a firm pledge to reduce its emissions by 20% in 2020 compared to 1990. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) welcomed this decision as a decisive step in the right direction, which would encourage other industrialised countries, as well as the major polluters, to adopt similar objectives.
Faster climate change would threaten the viability of wide swathes of the European economy, as shown by a recent ETUC study. Farming and food processing, fisheries and tourism - to mention just the most vulnerable sectors - could suffer serious damage if nothing is done to curb global warming. On the other hand, this same study shows that emission reduction policies can be applied with no adverse effects on employment, provided that they include measures to anticipate and support the temporary negative job impact.
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