Climate Jobs – Page 9 – Employment, Energy and Environment

Report on the May Common Space Forum

Mike Downham attended the Forum which was part of a week of discussion sponsored by Common Space and was held at the Kinning Park Complex in Glasgow. Here’s his reflection on the meeting which has also been published as a latter on Common Space.

Some meetings about changing society defy themselves by their structure. You know the sort of thing – too many speakers, speaking for too long, protected by a top table, with time only for a few questions (not comments) from the floor, to which each of the speakers gives pontifical answers. Then suddenly there’s a rush to close the meeting, and we all go home frustrated and disempowered.

Not so last night’s Common Space Forum. Rather more than half the time given to the 50 or so participants, the majority of whom took the opportunity to speak with impressive commitment and from a wide range of experience. The three ‘speakers’ reduced to respondents, asked well-prepared questions by a facilitator. Their answers strikingly non-sectarian, based on their respective experiences as Friends of the Earth activist, Extinction Rebellion activist, and Professor of ‘tools of persuasion’. The whole show felt like a re-run for a new and fair society.

Between us, for sure, there’s no problem about articulating both the nature of the emergency and a vision of where we need to get to. The issue is the bridge in between. But I went away optimistic and a lot clearer about bridges we can build together:

Make specific demands to the Scottish Government about what we want – for example a publicly owned, democratically accountable Scottish State Energy Company; the closure of North Sea oil and gas extraction; a just transition for workers and communities.
Make specific demands to the Scottish Government about what we absolutely don’t want – for example the Growth Commission’s economic plan; distant targets; fracking.
Don’t take no for an answer.
Acknowledge the importance in the mass movement of emotional response to the climate emergency, especially anger and fear (we got into a whole new dimension here, largely missing before the XR)
Know that we can do it

There was much talk about having so little time. The persuasion prof recommended we focus on Government ministers – not enough time to persuade the masses – but later somewhat contradicted himself by saying that people are quick to come behind issues of fairness. Surely we need to do both – hold ministers to account, right now, and continue to work in whatever ways available to us to build the mass movement, readying it to take the lead if ministers fail us.

The hall at Kinning Park Centre is large – plenty of room for an elephant. The elephant last night, sitting just behind us – you could smell him – was class. For all the talk of fairness, and of poverty, especially fuel poverty, there was no explicit class analysis. And yet what got us into this emergency was generations of exploitation of a huge number of people by a small number of people. We need to acknowledge this and keep our eye on it in everything we do, if we’re to understand what we’re up against. And because the people feeling the most pain will in the end be decisive in our fight for a fairer world.

45316192525_8c6ea31023_z

Image by Takver, Flickr, CC BY SA 2.0

Sea Change

This week has seen the publication of an important report on North Sea oil and gas. ‘Sea Change – climate emergency, jobs and managing the phase-out of UK oil and gas extraction’. The report is co-published by Platform, Oil Change International and Friends of the Earth Scotland. It finds that

The UK’s 5.7 billion barrels of oil and gas in already-operating oil and gas fields will exceed the UK’s share in relation to Paris climate goals – whereas industry and government aim to extract 20 billion barrels;
Recent subsidies for oil and gas extraction will add twice as much carbon to the atmosphere as the phase-out of coal power saves;
Given the right policies, job creation in clean energy industries will exceed affected oil and gas jobs more than threefold.

Recommendations to the UK and Scottish Governments include:

Stop issuing licenses and permits for new oil and gas exploration and development, and revoke undeveloped licenses;
Rapidly phase out all subsidies for oil and gas extraction, including tax breaks, and redirect them to fund a Just Transition;
Enable rapid building of the clean energy industry through fiscal and policy support to at least the extent they have provided to the oil industry, including inward investment in affected regions and communities;
Open formal consultations with trade unions to develop and implement a Just Transition strategy for oil-dependent regions and communities.

We hope to publish a longer review of the report in the near future. However, in the meantime we strongly recommend downloading, reading and sharing the PDF.

2018-07-19 08.57.05

Climate Jobs and a mass movement

The Scottish Trades Union Congress is meeting in Dundee from 15th – 17th April. We reprint the text of our leaflet here.

We have the technological knowledge to make a rapid transition to a sustainable economy. What’s missing is political will. The politics of transition is as critical as the technology.

Urgent action

The recent IPCC report highlights the urgent need for action. It’s important that the Scottish Government has set up the Just Transition Commission. However, the Energy Bill and other legislation going through the parliament falls far short of what’s required. Just transition isn’t an abstract idea. It means understanding that working people, their lives, livelihoods, skills and commitment are central to tackling the climate crisis.

Climate Jobs

The UN and national governments around the world have put their faith in the market. This approach has failed – carbon emissions are rising faster than at any time in human history. But there is an alternative. The Campaign Against Climate Change’s Million Climate Jobs plan outlines a detailed practical blueprint for transition. This would involve large scale programmes of publicly funded investment creating new jobs, protecting the livelihoods of those who will move from oil, gas and defence industriesto new jobs – Improving the lives of the bulk of the population through better insulated homes and improved public transport.

Just Transition

Only right wing ideologues now deny climate change. But beyond a relatively small layer of activists most people feel disconnected and powerless. The challenge is to link the necessary steps to the immediacy of working class lives. Workers in defence, construction and hydrocarbons are key. Their skills are needed to build the new and democratic economy. Yet at present they work in sectors that have seen a huge increase in agency workers and worsening pay and conditions.

The stakes couldn’t be higher – the lives and welfare of our children and grandchildren are at stake. Trade unions are crucial in shaping the kind of mass movement that can prevent climate catastrophe and ensure that the transition to a sustainable economy is just.

Fringe Meeting

Developing Sustainable and Socially Useful Jobs in Today’s Economy
Wednesday April 17 at 1230pm
Committee Room 2 City Chambers
Pete Roche – research officer – Nuclear Free Local Authorities
Speaker from Scot.E3
Meeting organised by Scottish CND

STUC Fringe Meeting

The Scottish Trades Union Congress meets at the Caird Hall in Dundee from 15th – 17th April. Scot.E3 is contributing to one of the fringe meetings:

Developing Sustainable and Socially Useful Jobs in Today’s Economy
Wednesday April 17 at 1230pm
Committee Room 2 City Chambers
Pete Roche – research officer – Nuclear Free Local Authorities
Speaker from Scot.E3
Meeting organised by Scottish CND

wind-energy-488534_1280

American Climate Rebels

A post from REEL News

In 2018, Reel News went on a 14 week tour of North America to look at grassroots struggles around climate change, particularly struggles around a “just transition” from fossil fuels to renewable energy, where workers and communities control the process so that they benefit from the transition, and around “just recovery” – recovery from extreme weather events which do not exascerbate current inequalities.

What we found were inspiring and visionary struggles all over the continent, led by working class communities of colour, with people organising just transitions and just recoveries themselves. Now, we’ll be presenting what we found in the form of a weekly online 11 episode series starting on Sunday April 14th – 7pm UK time, 3pm New York City time, Midday California time.

Episode 1 is about Alberta, Canada, where the long oil sands boom has come to an end. Falling oil prices are leading to thousands of job losses – which has started a serious conversation in the labour movement about transitioning away from oil to renewables. The need is becoming more urgent as the big oil sands companies look to maximise profits and slash even more jobs through automation. This film looks at a number of initiatives, the history of oppression of First Nations people to get the resources in the first place, and a rare chance to hear from oil sands workers themselves, including women and First Nations workers.

With the current growing uprising over climate change giving renewed hope, we’re hoping that this will not only inspire you further – but will also help a little in putting the idea of just transition at the forefront of the movement.

First Stage Debate on the new Climate Bill

The Scottish Government’s new Climate Bill has it’s first stage debate at Holyrood on Tuesday 2nd April. As it stands the bill is severely lacking in ambition and fails to measure up to the challenge set by the recent IPCC report. Rather than take large scale action over the next decade the bill sets the target of a 90% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This is simply not good enough. ScotE3 supports the rally outside the Parliament that has been called for 12.30pm on the 2nd.

47102675951_1f8112fcbe_z

Action points and information from the March 21st Scot.E3 meeting

Action

Climate Jobs Bloc on the Edinburgh and Glasgow May Day marches (4^thMay Edinburgh, 5^thMay Glasgow). PC and KW to liaise over text of invite to unions and environmental activists to join the march. PS has spoken to graphic designer about producing artwork for a climate jobs banner.

On Sunday May 5^ththere will be a Book fair at the Kirkgate Community Centre in Leith as part of the May Day events. We could have a side room to show films/ hold discussions. Agreed that perhaps we should have two fixed times for discussion. REEL News may be able to attend. More details to follow.

BP explained about the ‘Lucas Plan’ group in England. We’ve been invited to speak on Just Transition at a conference in Manchester on April 13^th. BP can attend – DS may also be able to – anyone not at the meeting who is interested in going please email to let us know.

Draft of blog post responding to the GMB’s criticism of the Just Transition Commission is now complete – agreed to circulate more widely and then publish after any further amendments are made.

STUC conference in Dundee 15th – 17^thApril. We’ll speak at a joint fringe meeting with Scottish CND. Joe Pisani has agreed to speak. PC will check if it’s possible to have another contribution to say something about ScotE3. Agreed that we should prioritise having a woman speaker for this. Please let us know if you are going to be at the conference or can attend to help with leafleting.

We’ve been invited to speak to the Edinburgh Green Party on Climate Jobs and Just Transition on Thursday 25 April. Agreed that it would be useful to focus on these issues in terms of local action – eg housing. We can do this as a collective contribution rather than just one voice so if you’d be interested in helping please email.

Agreed to publicise and support the Climate Rally at the Scottish Parliament on 2^ndApril, 12.30 to 2pm as MSPs discuss the new Climate Bill.

Agreed that discussion on an autumn conference should be a main agenda point at the next organising meeting

Agreed that over the next few days we would work on two new blog posts/briefings – one on the Energy from Waste Schemes that are currently being built and one on the proposed State Energy Company – if you’d like to contribute to either of these projects please email to let us know.

Information

It’s planned that the next Glasgow meeting will be a public meeting on Public ownership.

Glasgow activists are looking to source Scot.E3 tee-shirts

Recent posts on the Scot.E3 blog include ‘Reflections on BiFab’, ‘Unlocking the jobs potential of zero carbon’ and “Fuel Poverty, Energy and the fight for Climate Jobs’

After it’s first meeting future meetings of the Just Transition Commission will be on themed topics.

Next School Students Strikes are Friday 12 April

Reflections on BiFab

…working people, their lives, livelihoods, skills and commitment are central to tackling the climate crisis …

Occupying for jobs

In December 2017 BiFab workers from Burntisland, Methil and Lewis staged the biggest industrial protest in Scotland for many years. With site occupations and a mass protest to Holyrood, they forced the Scottish government to secure funding for the remaining contracts building jackets for the new Moray Firth wind farm. For a brief moment it seemed that jobs had been saved and BiFab might become an exemplar of the much-needed transition from offshore oil and gas to wind and tidal energy.

26683868759_9d8dfe867c_z

Hopes dashed

Hope was short-lived. Of a workforce of 1,400, only some 390 workers were in direct employment: the rest were on short-term agency contracts. In early 2018 there was a rapid run down of employment as contracts were not renewed and the Moray Firth contract was completed. A Canadian company acquired BiFab and the Scottish government converted its loan into equity, but no new orders were found. By May 2018 only 43 workers were left and a further 35 redundancies meant that only a handful were left to maintain the yards.

The need for political intervention

Behind the scenes the new owners, with the support of the Scottish government have been bidding for contracts to produce turbine jackets and platforms for the new Moray East and Kincardine offshore wind developments. But this month hopes of renewed large-scale employment were dashed when it emerged that these contracts had gone to companies in the UAE, Belgium and Spain. All that remains is 82 jobs at Arnish on the Isle of Lewis. Unite Scotland Secretary Pat Rafferty commented:

“Ten years ago we were promised a ‘Saudi Arabia of Renewables’ but today we need political intervention to help level the playing field in Scottish offshore renewables manufacturing. The truth is that state funded European energy and engineering firms, backed by Far East finance and Middle East sovereign wealth funds, are carving-up thousands of jobs and billions of pounds from our renewables sector, and firms like BiFab are left fighting for scraps off our own table.”

Missed opportunity

We are at a critical moment, when rapid action to mitigate catastrophic climate change is essential. To move towards a zero carbon economy the marine engineering skills of the BiFab workers are vital. We know that transition needs around 100,000 new climate jobs in Scotland. BiFab is a missed opportunity for action that effectively sets us back by more than a thousand jobs.

A just transition

Could things have been different? For a few days in December 2017 the BiFab workers inspired many beyond their ranks. The Scottish government’s rapid response reflected the strength of feeling and the severity of the jobs crisis. But fatally it depended on the private sector. In our view the scale of the climate crisis cannot be left to the vagaries of the market. We are not alone in this view and indeed the Scottish Government’s proposal for a state run energy company is in part recognition that public intervention is required. However, the current proposals are limited to taking the role of an alternative energy supplier. Much more is needed. We argue for a strategic, integrated and planned approach that encompasses production, infrastructure and distribution. BiFab could have been the first building block of this strategy.

The point of this article, however, is not to muse about might have beens. The school student strikes and the growth of Extinction Rebellion have highlighted the need for urgent action. In our view urgency requires that every possibility for action be pursued. Just Transition isn’t an abstract idea. It means understanding that working people, their lives, livelihoods, skills and commitment are central to tackling the climate crisis. Vast sums of money were used to bail out the banks, trillions of dollars were spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – the cost of keeping the BiFab workers in publicly run, regulated and decently paid employment would have been trivial in comparison. Let’s learn from this and ensure that the agenda in the coming months becomes the creation of new jobs and not a lament for jobs laid waste.

37574204465_97e9e271a4_z

‘Unlocking the job potential of zero carbon’

‘Unlocking the job potential of zero carbon’ from the Green European Foundation is a valuable addition to the evidence base that a socially just transition to a zero carbon economy is practical and possible. The authors model the impact on jobs, short-term (during the transition) and long term, of moving to zero carbon by 2030. The estimates they provide are conservative – they don’t consider the additional employment that would be created by the additional economic activity – they don’t consider jobs in the supply chain and they don’t include activity for which rigorous data is unavailable.

The new report’s approach is not identical to the work done by the Campaign Against Climate Change published in the Million Climate Jobs Pamphlet. However, their forecasts for the whole of the UK are very similar. They expect 980,000 additional jobs will be required during the transition reducing to 710,000 after zero carbon is reached. New jobs are calculated on a regional basis with a full breakdown available in the report’s appendix. The number of new jobs during the transition is estimates as 60,946 falling to 26,905 in the long-term.

44414766780_2d28a453ac_z

Fuel Poverty, Energy and the fight for Climate Jobs

Stage one of the Scottish Government’s Fuel Poverty Bill was completed on 20^th February 2019. In our view the bill is not ambitious enough. We risk missing an important opportunity to reduce carbon emissions, create new climate jobs and strike a blow for social justice. Ending Fuel Poverty could and should be part of the Just Transition to a zero carbon economy that we need. We will publish more on this in the coming weeks – contributions are welcome.

Here are Marlyn Tweedie’s thoughts on the subject.

On Feb 15^th, school children, all over Europe, came out on strike in protest at the catastrophic future they face because of climate change.

We need to make big changes re. our energy sources if we are to slow down climate change.

What if we could use sustainable energy sources to reverse climate change damage and provide cheaper fuel? Wouldn’t this be a win- win solution?

Fuel Poverty In Scotland

Over 25% of households live in fuel poverty – defined as spending 10% or more of your income on fuel bills, or, if, after paying for fuel, your income is below the poverty line.

In rural Scotland, the extent of fuel poverty is higher. A 2016 report states that in accessible rural areas, there is 35% fuel poverty and in remote areas, the figure is 45%.

Regarding extreme fuel poverty, the comparable figures are 7% for Scotland, as a region; 12% in accessible rural areas and 28% in remote areas.

Low income, high energy costs and poorly insulated homes result in this appalling situation where families, young people, elderly, disabled and many working people cannot afford adequate warmth.

A situation, which, it is estimated, contributes to 5,500 deaths a year.

What Can Be Done?

Fuel poverty would be best approached as part of a radical change in energy policy.

Scotland has an abundance of renewable energies – in the form of wave, wind and tidal energy.

The costs are cheaper. Current gas and oil costs are between 4p and 12p per kilowatt hour. Renewables are between 2p and 7p.

If, alongside a switch to renewables. A mass insulation campaign was implemented, carbon emissions could be cut by 95%.

The Campaign against Climate Change notes Three quarters of emissions from houses and flats are caused by heating air and water. To reduce this we need to insulate and draught- proof buildings and replace inefficient boilers. This can cut the amount of energy used by about 40% and delivers the double whammy of reducing energy costs and helping mitigate the scourge of fuel poverty.

It is estimated that a campaign to insulate all homes in Scotland would employ 20,000 construction workers for the next 20 years.

Further reading – the ScotE3 briefing on Fuel Poverty

6992454230_271ea8d9e2_z

Image by climatejusticecollective CC BY 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/cj_collective/6992454230