LRD guides and handbook September 2019

Union action on climate change - a trade union guide

Chapter 1

Labour’s Green New Deal

[ch 1: page 19]

The campaign group Labour for a Green New Deal is urging constituency labour parties (CLPs) and trade union branches to pass its motion calling on the Labour Party to include a Green New Deal in its manifesto and submit it to the 2019 Labour Party conference.

The Green New Deal is “a state-led programme of investment and regulation for the decarbonisation and transformation of our economy that reduces inequality and pursues efforts to keep global average temperature rises below 1.5°C”. It includes:

• commitment to zero carbon emissions by 2030;

• rapidly phasing out all fossil fuels;

• large-scale investment in renewables;

• a Just Transition to well-paid, unionised, green jobs available for all;

• a green industrial revolution expanding public, democratic ownership as far as necessary for the transformation;

• green public integrated transport that connects Britain;

• supporting developing countries’ climate transitions by increasing transfers of finance, technology and capacity;

• assuring everyone’s basic rights through the provision of universal services; and

• welcoming climate refugees while taking measures against the displacement of peoples from their homes.

Labour for a Green New Deal, Conference Motion 2019 (https://www.labourgnd.uk/motions)