South Unions to COP29: Pay Up! Reclaim Energy, Restore Vital Services
November 20, 2024
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South Unions to COP29: Pay Up! Reclaim Energy, Restore Vital Services
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Over 100 South Unions Call for a Public Approach to Climate Finance
Representing over a hundred million organised workers, more than 100 unions and close allies have called on rich country governments at the UN’s annual climate conference (COP29) to deliver adequate levels of climate finance in ways that can reclaim and restore vital public assets and services.
Unprecedented in terms of the number of unions raising their voice at a UN climate event,the statement (also below) has been released at a time when wealthy countries appear to be unwilling to honour their obligations to support South countries, many of whom spend more on debt servicing than they do on health and education. The statement reinforces the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC) top-line messages around just transition and worker rights and the ITUC World Congress commitment to fight for reclaiming energy to public ownership and control.
Many of the 105 unions supporting the statement are part of the TUED network, but many are not. The breadth of the response marks an important step for the international trade union movement in terms of building South-South and North-South solidarity around the struggle for effective climate action.
TUED South Leadership Voices & Sign-Ons to the Declaration
View the press release for the complete quote list from TUED South union leaders.
Martha Tinny Molema, President, ITUC Africa:
“The African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) represents 17 million workers across 101 affiliated trade union centres, and we support the call for COP29 to adopt a new approach to climate finance, one that is debt-free and grant-based. At our 5th Congress a year ago, ITUC Africa endorsed the “Reclaim and Restore” approach to public energy utilities, so they can resume their historic role in our continent’s journey away from energy poverty and are fully equipped to face the challenges of energy transition.”
Solly Phetoe, General Secretary, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU):
"Workers in the Global South are calling for a fresh approach to addressing the climate crisis, one that reclaims and restores vital public services such as energy and transport. COSATU supports the public pathway alternative to the "privatise to decarbonise" agenda of the rich countries. Climate finance should not incur more debt; it should rebuild our basic infrastructure so we can better cope with climate change and ensure a truly just transition."
C. José Humberto Montes de Oca Luna, Secretario del Exterior, Mexican Electrician’s Union (SME):
“My union fully supports the reclaim and restore approach to the energy transition, because the current “privatise to decarbonise” model is not producing either the investment finance necessary to address climate change, and years of neoliberal policies have decimated our public services. We support the President of the Republic, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo’s bold efforts to defend Mexico’s energy sovereignty by reestablishing our national energy companies, CFE (electricity) and PEMEX (oil and gas) as public utilities. This is being approached from a sustainable perspective that incorporates a public and social pathway for a fair and sovereign energy transition.”
Ozzie Warwick, Oilfields Workers' Trade Union (OWTU) Trinidad and Tobago & Secretary to the Joint Trade Union Movement:
"In Trinidad and Tobago, there is no just transition on the agenda. We have already seen the impact of neoliberal privatisation, and now these policies are being pushed in the name of saving the planet. We are deeply concerned about climate change, but the “international community” needs to come to terms with the fact that coal, oil and gas use is higher than at any point in history. We want climate finance to compensate for the damage caused by the rich countries’ emissions, but also to allow for a managed phase-down of fossil fuels based on the UNFCCC principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibilities."
Luke Espiritu, president, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino
“Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino stands with millions in the Global South demanding climate justice. The imperialist Global North must pay for its historical responsibility. While they polluted and exploited, the South faces worsening disasters like typhoons, droughts, and floods. We call for $5 trillion annually in reparations—not loans or aid—and a just, rapid transition from fossil fuels. No climate justice without reparations!”
Irene HongPing Shen, Lead Organizer of TUED
“Over 100 million workers of the Global South are represented by the signatories of this statement. As the climate crisis grows, the global community has the opportunity to move toward global cooperation and internationalism by supporting these demands. While the $5 trillion annual demand does not erase the history of imperialist violence and devastation enacted by the Global North on the Global South, done right, it has the potential to assist Global South governments to rebuild their capacities to reclaim and restore their public electricity and transport sectors. This public pathway approach can address energy poverty and technology transfers both critical as we tackle decarbonization and build resilience. There’s no time to waste, solidarity with Global South unions now!”
COP29 Declaration: Global South Trade Unions
CLIMATE FINANCE SHOULD
RECLAIM AND RESTORE PUBLIC ASSETS AND SERVICES
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We are trade unions representing over 100 million workers from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean region.
As Global South trade unions, we support a public pathway approach to addressing climate change, one that requires a major policy shift away from the current “privatise to decarbonise” policy towards a bold pro-public framework.
We echo the calls made by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and it’s regional bodies from Africa, Asia Pacific, and the Americas; Global Union Federations (GUFs); and other trade union bodies for COP29 to deliver levels of climate finance that are commensurate with, first, the unprecedented scale of the threat posed by climate change and, second, the historic responsibilities of the Global North that are recognised under the UNFCCC.
We support a response to the climate crisis that promotes global justice and respects and protects workers’ rights as outlined in the Just Transition Work Program (JTWP). We urge all Parties to develop and implement effective and actionable steps to ensure a just and equitable transition in the Global South.
The New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) and a New Era for Public Energy
We call on parties at the COP to acknowledge the essential role of public ownership and control over vital sectors essential to climate action and transition, such as energy, public transport, and raw materials. As noted in the ITUC’s Fifth World Congress statement adopted in November 2022, “Neoliberal climate and energy policies…which are tied to privatisation and commodification, have failed to halt the rise of greenhouse gas emissions.” The Congress called “for the retention, reclamation and expansion of public ownership of energy infrastructure and services,” a policy we fully support. We also support Trade Union Confederation of the America’s (TUCA’s) demand that “energy must be decommodified and democratised through changes in the ownership and management regimes, strengthening the public character and reorienting the role of public companies so that their management is democratic and focused on guaranteeing rights and better living conditions for the working population.” Furthermore, the NCQG must ensure that the delivery of all climate finance is shaped by mechanisms to advance public, democratic and transparent control, and be based on the recognition of the UNFCCC principle of Common But Differentiated Responsibilities.
Therefore, climate finance must be delivered in ways that can:
Prevent further debt, and relieve the immense pressures of existing debt, on South countries. Many South countries already pay more in debt servicing than they commit to health, education and basic services. Climate finance must maintain and expand these public services, which are vital to both mitigation and adaptation efforts.
End the policy of “blended finance” and “de-risking.” Since COP15 in 2009, the levels of capital committed has been, first, minimal and therefore inadequate and, second, most of the finances have been mobilised by the MDBs and is therefore public finance. The World Bank’s “billions to trillions” idea that public money would “catalyse” large amounts of private sector finance has been an unqualified failure. A NCQG must acknowledge that private investors will not provide the investment needed to reach climate and low-carbon energy targets, and the effectiveness of climate finance will be contingent on public institutions and public financing.
Move beyond market mechanisms such as carbon pricing and trading (which have been shown to be socially regressive and ecologically ineffective); and to finally see beyond offsets as a means to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD and REDD+). As noted by TUCA’s COP29 statement, these policies have been promoted by “countries of the North and transnational corporations to be developed in the countries of the global South, deepen the crisis and promote the reproduction of colonialist practices, ignoring the differentiated responsibilities of the countries of the global North.”
Refrain from making the kind of attacks on the public sector common to Just Energy Transition Partnerships. Future proposals should not use language that favours and showcases the interests of private investors. They should instead use language that addresses core concerns of workers, communities, and the legitimate development needs of South countries.
Permit and encourage a “reclaim and restore” approach to public services and utilities, and help South governments grow their assets and capacities, putting them in a stronger position to pursue low-carbon industrial and social development
Therefore our demands are as follows:
Developed countries must fulfil their historical responsibilities: They must deliverclimate finance to the Global South of at least $5 trillion annually. This climate finance must be new & additional, public, non-debt creating, adequate and predictable, and channeled through democratic, transparent, and accountable mechanisms. It must consist of grants rather than loans for climate-related loss and damage, and climate adaptation. Developed countries must also cancel (not reschedule) climate-related (e.g. debts to loss and damage to infrastructure, vital crop failures, etc.) and illegitimate debts to free up fiscal space for global South countries to respond to the climate crisis. Both climate finance and debt cancellation can be considered as part of the reparations the global North owes to the global South for their historical and continuing responsibility for the climate crisis.
Climate finance must be used to expand public assets: Unlike blended finance schemes like Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) which use public money to de-risk private investments while piling on governmental debt, the $5 trillion annual commitment should be targeted towards rebuilding the capacities of governments to reclaim their electricity and transport sectors to full public ownership and control. JETP-type conditionalities aimed at creating “an enabling environment for the private sector” through deregulation, liberalisation, and the undermining of public companies must give way to “public pathway” approaches to a just energy transition.
Address Energy Poverty: The multilateral lending system should abandon its “privatise to decarbonise” agenda and openly endorse the “reclaim and restore” public energy utilities approach proposed by unions supporting the public pathway. The MDBs should stop favouring private companies (such as so-called independent power producers, or IPPs) while insisting on “full cost recovery” for public companies. Pioneered by the World Bank in the 1980s and 1990s, “structural adjustment” policies remain a feature of today’s climate finance schemes in that they make financing contingent upon reforms that promote private companies while striving to undermine public services and entities. This is the primary reason why in the Global South hundreds of millions of people still do not have access to clean and reliable electricity and billions still rely on dirty energy sources for cooking and heating.
Technology transfer is necessary for high value-added green industrialisation and low-carbon development: Additional finance must be directed towards the diversification of global supply chains through the transfer of technologies, technical assistance, and public-public partnerships based state-to-state cooperation on non-commercial terms. Today’s green industries are controlled by a handful of countries and multinational companies who are frequently more concerned about revenue streams, profits and market share than they are concerned about addressing the threat of climate change.
North should lead on managed decline of fossil fuel use. The JETPs’ focus on reducing coal-use in countries like Indonesia, South Africa and Vietnam avoids the reality that rich countries are major fossil fuel producers and exporters. The rich countries can, and should, take the lead in terms of reducing not just their consumption of fossil fuels but also their exports. This should be combined with providing developing country assistance to expedite the deployment of low-carbon energy alternatives, state-of-the-art approaches to energy efficiency, and the development of modern climate-resilient infrastructure and industrial practices.
Beyond Colonial Practices, a Publicly-Driven Future for the South
We believe that a just and equitable transition requires a strategic repositioning of the Global South away from the bottom of the global value chain. We are the global majority. We are home to the majority of the strategic minerals that are fueling the 21st century industries.
We call on our governments to form regional South-South joint industrial policies, with South-North cooperation to share and transfer life-saving technologies to manufacture and deploy renewable and other forms of low-carbon energy, modern public transportation services and infrastructure, etc., at scale in the Global South. These joint industrial policies must pre-negotiate the terms and conditions of a socially fair and ecologically sound extraction of minerals, the fair distribution of the value chain across the South and the equitable distribution of future prosperity based on first meeting basic needs. Green industrial policies in the Global South must avoid reproducing the same hierarchies, violence and socio-economic exclusions of the past. Those policies must recognise the centrality of workers in any production process and ensure compliance with rights and decent working conditions, and commit financing as a means to change the current production and consumption model. Absent radical changes in this extractivist, exploitative and wasteful model, decarbonisation targets will continue to be missed by wide margins.
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