COP9 climate change adaptation measures need social transition focus

BRUSSELS/PARIS 19.11.2003 - The two world's largest trade union organisations in the world[#] are urging the government representatives who will attend next week's 9th world climate change Conference of the Parties (COP9) in Italy to work with the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC). This is to prevent what they see as a possible sliding away from prevention and toward disaster management in addressing climate change problems.
The trade unions argue that COP9's agreement about 'adaptation' and 'response' measures «must be made to embody livelihood, social access, human displacement and social security issues within their terms of references and that these must incorporate employment transition as part of the scenario for change and as means of addressing world poverty.»
«We would especially like to be in a position to convince our members that supporting UNFCCC decisions can contribute to positive employment impacts in the long term and that their livelihood will not be jeopardized when change becomes necessary«. They say that proper employment transition programmes must be instituted as a basic ingredient and these must be supported with trustworthy financial and economic instruments that are themselves integrated with UNFCCC emissions trading and other measures.
[#] International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (