London trade union conference to confront climate change

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

June 8 2013: conference will bring together scientists, unionists and environmentalists to discuss fighting to stop global warming and create jobs.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

CONFRONTING THE CLIMATE CRISIS
Saturday June 8, 2013, 11am – 5pm
London Metropolitan University,
277-281 Holloway Road, London N7 8HN

This conference, organized by the Trade Union Group of the Campaign Against Climate Change, and supported by the FBU, CWU, TSSA, PCS. UCU and UNITE unions, will bring together leading climate scientists, trade unionists and environmental campaigners to discuss how best we can fight to stop global warming and create jobs.

Registration is £10 waged, £5 unwaged.
Book online at or call 079 585 35231

Download the conference flyer (pdf)

AGENDA

11am Opening address

Sue Ferns (Director of Communications and Research, Prospect/ Co-chair of Trade Unions Sustainable Development Advisory Committee) for TUC

11.20 Opening plenary: How serious is the climate crisis and how could it affect us? A briefing for trade unionists.

Professor Kevin Anderson, Deputy Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research

12.20 Workshops

  1. The melting Arctic: what will it mean?
    Dr. Michel Tsamados (Research Associate, Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, Reading University)
  2. Weird weather: is this the new normal?
    Dr. Richard Allan (Reader in Climate Science, University of Reading),
    Dave Green (Fire Brigades Union national officer for floods)
  3. Climate change: the threat to agriculture and food supply
    Kirtana Chandrasekaran (Food Sovereignty Programme Co-ordinator, Friends of the Earth International),
    Suzanne Jeffery (Chair, CACCTU)

1.20 Lunch

2.00 Second Plenary: Fighting climate change and for climate jobs, internationally & locally

Andreas Ytterstad (Union of Concerned Scientists, Norway),
Dr Lara Skinner (Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, USA),
Martin Empson (Million Climate Jobs Campaign),
Ewa Jasiewicz (No Dash for Gas).
Speakers from South African Trade Unions and Canadian indigenous movement linked through Skype.

3.00 Workshops

  1. Fighting for climate jobs in the unions
    Chris Baugh (Assistant General Secretary, PCS)
  2. Uniting trade unions with community campaigns
    Graham Petersen (UCU national environment co-ordinator/ Greener Jobs Alliance)
    Peter Robinson (Jobs and Climate Alliance)
    Jane Thomas (Senior England Campaigner, Friends of the Earth)
  3. Changing the Government’s climate  policy
    Joan Walley MP (Chair, House of Commons Environmental Scrutiny Committee)
    John McDonnell MP
    Philip Pearson (TUC Senior Policy Officer for Climate Change and Energy)

4.00 Closing Plenary: “Question Time” panel format – Countering austerity – the fight for climate jobs

Manuel Cortez (General Secretary, TSSA)
Chris Baugh (Assistant General Secretary PCS)
Martin Mayer (National Executive, Unite)
Suzanne Jeffery (Chair, CACCTU)
Jonathan Stevenson (Fuel Poverty Action)
Joan Walley MP
Will Duckworth (Deputy Leader, Green Party)