Join RLS & SAFTU in asking what role labour organisations can play in mitigating the social impact of the climate crisis.

15 October 2021, 09h00 – 11h50. Event programme available via Read More below.

Registration link: https://zoom.us/j/96211823167

Globally, the climate crisis poses a serious and current challenge to humanity and in specific ways locally. Very simply, human industry has been producing massive amounts of carbon, especially since the Industrial Revolution, pumping unprecedented amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the planet’s atmosphere and thus causing global warming. For the first time in millennia, atmospheric CO2 levels breached their highest level in 1950 and have since then been increasing dramatically. Unquestionably, human activities globally (though unequally) are driving this massive change to the planet.

The effects of climate change are largely irreversible. They have been and will significantly alter, unequally, the everyday lives of every human being. Some of these are: loss of sea ice, accelerated sea level rise and longer, more intense heat waves. The implications of these massive changes on localised populations of people are dire. The Global South, including South Africa, are expected to suffer such effects more that in the Global North. This has more to do with wealth and access to mitigating solutions than it does with geography.

Governments have been meeting together about climate change concerns since 1995, the first Conference of the Parties (COP), held in Bonn, Germany, under the aegis of the United Nations (UN). The next such meeting (COP26) is set to meet in November this year, under very different and worsening climate conditions globally. The COP26 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.Many trade unions and civil society organisations globally are rallying behind the Just Transition “solution”. But will it be enough? Will it be a “pipe dream” or a “silver bullet”? How can the devastation of our global climate be mitigated for the future? What role can labour organisations like trade unions play?

The launch of the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (RLS) and South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) Political School occurs against this background. The first Political School is an effort to engage labour on the issue of climate change to challenge both corporations and governments to move toward an understanding of climate change, its effects and possible solutions. In addition, to understand the implications of climate change on labour.