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UN Calls on Trade Unions to Make Environment Top Priority

Posted on: Wednesday, 18 January 2006, 09:00 CST

UN calls on trade unions to make environment top priority

NAIROBI, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- The World Trade Union Assembly on Labor and the Environment ended in Kenyan capital Nairobi Tuesday with participants calling for concrete action in the struggle for a sustainable environment.

The three-day conference which brought together more than 160 trade unions also agreed that environmental rights such as access to basic resources like water and energy should stand side by side with more traditional workers rights such as freedom of association and collective bargaining.

Speaking at the end of the meeting, Klaus Toepfer, executive director of UN Environment Program (UNEP) said environment is an essential factor in the pursuit of sustainable development, but the social dimension must not be forgotten.

He said the partnership with trades is therefore of prime importance, and trade unions need to become prominent stakeholders in the struggle.

Trade Unions and their role in the work place can be a catalyst for positive environment change while bearing witness to occupational practices that have the potential to harm or improve not only workers and their families but planet Earth as a whole, Toepfer told a news conference in Nairobi.

"I am sure that the many case studies presented here, on chemicals and climate change up to clearer production initiatives, will be taken forward and replicated across the developing and developed world," he said.

The meeting, a joint initiative of the UNEP, Sustainlabour and the Varda group, reviewed concrete case studies of practical initiatives in the 60 countries represented in Nairobi.

The trade unions pledged to work towards government reforms that recognize environment rights and to assess, plan and monitor programs that deliver safe and environmentally-friendly industrial, manufacturing and production processes.

It reaffirmed that decent and secure jobs are vital for sustainable livelihoods and that they are only possible in an environmentally healthy world.

"I am delighted that we have finally come together to forge a forward-looking road map for closer cooperation," Toepfer said.

Spanish Environment Minister Cristina Narbona who attended the meeting called for increased collaboration between the trade unions and UN agencies for sustained development.

"In future, we have to take into account environmental issues if we have to create sustainable development. It is essential to create an international partnership between the organizations," Narbona told reporters.

The meeting, the first of its kind in Nairobi, also adopted action on climate change and promotion of sustainable production consumption patterns.

Other areas include working for the ratification and implementation of key treaties that promote important social, economical and environmental objectives alongside monitoring of governments so that their purchasing, regulation and land use polices meet sound social and environmental targets.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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