Dear John,

We campaign to cut Ireland’s polluting emissions fast enough to prevent complete climate breakdown and fairly enough to leave no one behind.

The fastest and fairest transition is one that is inclusive, protects jobs and communities and delivers new opportunities for all. Achieving this will involve building a broad coalition across the trade union movement, environmental organisations and wider civil society. 

That’s why I’m delighted to be able to invite you to the launch of the Just Transition Alliance this Thursday. The Alliance represents the coming together of trade unions (ICTU, SIPTU, FORSA) with climate campaigners (Friends of the Earth and the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition) and those focused on the social impact of the transition in Ireland (the social change think tank TASC).

We’ve been been working together over recent months to agree a Joint Declaration of Principles that will be launched on Thursday by Sharon Burrows, the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation. Just Transition is a concept that originated from within the global trade union movement so we are delighted that Sharon can join us. She is the woman who coined the phrase “no jobs on a dead planet”.

We campaigned for Just Transition to be included in the Climate Law last year. It was included - if not as forcefully as we’d like.  But so far the Government has only paid lip service to the concept and has not even sat down to have a long-promised dialogue with the trade unions and other stakeholders.

The launch of the Just Transition Alliance on Thursday is an important chance to show solidarity with workers who will be affected by the race to zero pollution. It’s an opportunity to hear directly from worker representatives and to show that you stand with them. So if you have an hour to spare at lunch time on Thursday it would be fantastic if you could join us from 12.30 to 13.30. 

I’ll also be speaking at the launch, along with Sharron Burrows as mentioned above. Kevin Callinan, President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions will also speak - along with Shana Cohen, Director of TASC. 

I do hope you can join us for this exciting opportunity to stand with workers and build our collective power to demand a Just Transition to a world with zero pollution. 

In solidarity

Oisín

Stop Climate Chaos is a coalition of civil society organizations campaigning to ensure Ireland does its fair share to tackle the causes and consequences of climate change.