Idioma principal do documento: Inglês


Resumo em Inglês: During the last decade there has been a growing realization on the part of workers and trade unions that they need to focus on sustainable development issues. There has also been an acknowledgement on the part of all the development partners that workers and trade unions have a key role to play in efforts to make companies, jobs and working conditions more environmentally/economically sustainable. Their knowledge and collective bargaining power are essential if the needed changes are to be made in time. Thus governments, businesses, civil society at large and labour are natural allies in the search for more sustainable development options. With over 200 years of experience in protecting workers’ rights, trade unions can make the environment a focus of collective bargaining, advocate more sensitive methods of using natural resources, and promote benefit-sharing and access to information and social and environmental justice. Environmentalists, in cooperation with workers, have a critical role to play in increasing awareness of environmental challenges and helping to build workers’ capacity to implement relevant provisions of environmental conventions, legislation and policies. One of the key messages of Labour and the Environment: A Natural Synergy concerns the need for action. The call is loud and clear: as a priority, the focus of all actors should be on acting – with respect to chemicals control and climate change, more sustainable production and consumption, and understanding (and planning for) global environmental changes. As pointed out by several authors, widespread changes in favour of “greener” technologies can create new job opportunities worldwide. It is of crucial importance for everyone on the planet that all those concerned should do their best to understand and respond appropriately to environmental damage. This is strongly supported by the October 2006 report on climate change compiled for the government of the United Kingdom by Sir Nicholas Stern (former chief economist at the World Bank), which was published while this publication was being finalized. One of the Stern report’s main conclusions is that, in the 21st century, up to one-fifth of the world’s wealth could disappear and the lives of billions be put at (greater) risk unless appropriate investments are made now in creating a global low-carbon economy. The report further emphasizes that the cost of investing in low-carbon technologies would be trivial compared with the potential damage that could be caused by climate change. Investing about 1 per cent of global GDP per year over the next 50 years could stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level the report considers “high but acceptable”. If appropriate action is not taken, however, the Stern report warns of catastrophic disruptions to African economies in particular, owing to the effects of drought on food production. In addition, up to a billion people globally could lose their water supplies as glaciers disappear; hundreds of millions could be displaced by sea-level rises; and there could be more serious hurricane or tornado damage worldwide as storms become increasingly fierce. The cost of failing to act could approach US$4 trillion by 2100.
Palavras-chave em Inglês: labour and environment, sustainable development, impact of environmental protection on employment and proverty reduction, trade union movement and environmental participation, climate change and energy, occupational environmental and public health, sustainable consumption and production patterns, education and knowledge sharing

Tipo: Relatório/Plano

Áreas temáticas: Ciências e Tecnol. do Ambiente, Economia e Gestão, Antropologia e Sociologia
Ano publicação/produção:  2007

Instituição: UNEP - United Nations Environmental Programme

Referência bibliográfica: Albracht, G. et al. (2007). Labour and the Environment: A Natural Synergy. UNEP - United Nations Environmental Programme, United Nations Office at Nairobi, Publishing Services Section.

Número de páginas:  152

Preço:  0 €

Formato: pdf

Tamanho:  1,9 Mbytes