Ep 210: Is Europe Taking Climate Change “Just Transition” More Seriously?

Working Life Podcast

Episode 210: I am guessing everyone who listens to this show considers himself or herself an environmentalist and cares about the planet. You believe in science—a shocking notion—so you get the climate change emergency. We know we have to do some pretty radical stuff to keep this spaceship habitable for generations to come. Here’s the problem: there isn’t enough real thought by environmentalists and politicians, with numbers to go along with the thinking, how to take care of workers who will be hurt by the closing down of the fossil fuel industry. Support the Working Life Network here: www.patreon.com/WorkingLifePodcast ActBlue: secure.actblue.com/donate/working-life-1 Grasping climate change is serious is not contrary to also being worried to death you won’t be able to pay the bills if your coal mine shuts down, or a refinery stops production or the truck you drive to deliver food to people has to be all electric. Joe Biden has plenty of language in his campaign positions calling for high-paid union jobs in the post-carbon world, and he promises “We’re not going to leave any workers or communities behind”. Yet, too much of his proposals, and most other proposals, are way too vague and missing real numbers. The Just Transition debate in Europe is both similar to ours and not the same. It’s not the same for some key reasons: unions are stronger but perhaps not as strong as say 20 years ago. Health care is not tied to what job you happen to have—it’s a right not a privilege. And in most nations in Europe there is a component of a national pension plan so you don’t have to pray, like you do here, that the stock market is doing well enough when you retire that your IRA will give you enough money to live on. But, there is still enough vagueness in Europe to cause friction. To dig into this a bit more, I chat with Adrien Thomas, a research scientist at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER), who is focused on employment relations and the social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Adrien recently co-authored an article entitled, “Trade unions and climate change: the jobs-versus-environment dilemma”. Support the Working Life Network here: www.patreon.com/WorkingLifePodcast ActBlue: secure.actblue.com/donate/working-life-1 -- Jonathan Tasini Follow me on Twitter @jonathantasini Subscribe to the YouTube show, Working Life at: https://www.youtube.com/WorkingLifewithJonathanTasini Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jonathan.tasini.3