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Climate change and the labor market.. How does global warming lose our jobs?

Climate change and global warming affect the lives of more than 7 billion people living on the blue planet. It is at a time when the environmental consequences of the global warming crisis, such as rising temperatures and melting ice, are often mentioned. There is what can be called the “non-environmental aspect” of the crisis, which is the most severe, as it affects economic interests, but it is largely absent from policy makers around the world.

This absence does not prevent climate change from causing an imbalance in the distribution of natural resources and a decline in income levels, especially for the low-income and the poor. In addition to the fluctuations in the labor market. It can be said that the changes affect, in one way or another, the map of the labor market around the world, in addition to the future of workers and their trade union organizations.

The losses of climate change are estimated at between 5% and 20% of the total global output, which is greater than the losses of the First and Second World Wars, in addition to the Great Depression crisis at the beginning of the twentieth century. These numbers are according to what was stated in the report of Nicholas Stern, Professor of Public Finance and Development in Britain, and published under the title “A Review of the Economics of Climate Change.”

sector most affected

It is difficult to accurately know the impact of climate change on various economic activities, but industries that are described as “large” such as cement, metals, chemicals, glass and the automotive industry are among the sectors most affected by climate change. Because it is the first cause of harmful emissions.

According to a recent study published by “One Earth” magazine, about 18 million people currently work directly in the energy sector around the world, of whom 12.6 million are in fossil fuel industries, 4.6 million are in renewable energy industries, and 800,000 are in nuclear energy, a large part. Some of them are threatened with losing their jobs, due to these climate changes.

working class losses

Under the heading “Working on a Warmer Planet,” the International Labor Organization said that global losses in productivity, due to climate change, will lead to 80 million workers losing their permanent job opportunity between now and 2030, or the equivalent of losing 11 million workers annually in less than 8 years.

affected sectors

About 940 million people work in the agricultural sector, and it is expected that its losses will reach 60% of the total working hours due to extreme heat by 2030. While workers in the construction sector will be affected by losing 19% of working hours, the impact also includes the health, garbage collection, emergency, and infrastructure sectors. infrastructure, transportation.

fair shift

Climate change has been identified as a global problem since the early 1970s, and the 1972 Stockholm Conference was the first United Nations global conference on the issue of the environment. After that, international interest in the climate issue continued, and one of the most important events was the Paris Climate Conference 2015, during which financial assistance was presented to the countries of the South to confront climate change. Rich countries also promised to provide $100 billion annually, starting in 2020, to help developing countries finance their transition to clean energies.

The Paris climate agreement also raised “the need to achieve a just transformation of the labor force, and to find decent work and decent jobs.” Whereas at the 2018 United Nations Climate Conference in Poland, countries adopted a declaration on just transition to make sure no one is left behind in the new green economy.

Social Justice

The working class, which suffers the greatest loss as a result of climate change, has not received sufficient attention, despite the adoption by the United Nations Conference 2018 of a declaration on the just transformation of the green economy. As workers around the world face the fate of unemployment in light of expectations that millions of jobs will disappear, due to climate change. Workers will also need training, new job opportunities, and some may have to change their place of residence. In 2030, it is expected that entire regions and industries will be redesigned, given their dependence on fossil fuels, according to the International Labor Organization report “Working in a Changing Climate – The Green Initiative.”

The report “Green Jobs Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable World” monitors the negative effects of climate change, especially on agricultural and tourism workers. The report also indicates a lack of funds to design trainings that qualify workers when transitioning to green jobs.

green economy

International financial institutions sought to adopt proactive policies to protect the climate and preserve the environment in the hope that it will actually create a number of job opportunities much greater than what is created by the usual growth of business, and the goal was to create 60 million additional job opportunities by 2030, and the World Bank Group launched the climate change strategy for the eastern region Middle and North Africa, which includes pumping investments worth 10 billion dollars, over 5 years

The Board of Directors of the European Investment Bank also approved $15.1 billion in financing, which will be allocated to projects aimed at protecting vulnerable communities from the impact of climate change. However, the World Bank Group and the European Investment Bank did not address projects to rehabilitate or train workers affected by job loss as a result of the transition plan to a green economy.

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