The campaign!

Union Climate Connectors is a joint campaign between the Australian Conservation Foundation and Australian Unions.

We empower union members to take action in homes, workplaces and communities around Australia.

We support solutions to the climate crisis that are good for the environment and good for jobs.

The power of unions.

We believe that working people, their unions and their communities have a role to play in developing solutions to the climate crisis.

We know that those solutions have the power to create millions of jobs in a clean energy economy – jobs for us, and jobs for future generations.

In taking up this challenge, we draw on a proud union history of struggle and achievement – through our collective efforts we have lifted living standards and improved the quality of working life; and we have campaigned for fairness and justice in our communities.

Developing solutions to the climate crisis will require our best efforts within our own workplaces and communities, and will require collective action on a scale we’ve never seen before.

Union members have a vision for a clean energy future, with clean, green workplaces; and have a leadership role to play in developing and demanding the action we need to get there.

 

In Australia...

We are facing a climate crisis. Humans are causing this crisis, and humans can stop it getting worse.

Australians live on one of the driest continents on Earth, which puts us right in the firing line of climate change. We have already seen the terrible effects of climate change, including bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef, increases in fires and drought, and more severe storms. The cost of extreme climate events in economic terms is unsustainable; and in human terms shocking.

But Australia is also in a great position to be a world leader in renewable energy and create thousands of jobs and new exports.

We can keep our planet healthy for future generations by acting on the climate crisis now.

We can all do our bit.

The Union Climate Connectors team will send you useful information about what you can do at home, at work, and in your community to help tackle climate change in your immediate environment.

We’ll provide resources to help you and your workmates to better understand the challenges we’re facing, and to make informed assessments of the solutions being proposed.

We’ll also coordinate face-to-face activities for connectors who want to meet up, share ideas and learn more.

We’ll give you opportunities to join actions for those solutions that are good for the environment and good for jobs.

The guiding principles of the campaign

1. We accept that science tells us that human activity, in particular greenhouse pollution, is causing a climate crisis.
2. We believe that working people, their unions and their communities have a role to play in developing solutions to the climate crisis.
3. We believe that real solutions to the climate crisis must be both environmentally and socially effective, and that the future is a clean energy economy. This means that solutions must:

• • deliver science-based emissions reduction targets;
  
  
  • provide certainty for the environment and for business;
  
  
  • ensure that everyone in Australia, including the big polluters, does their fair share in reducing emissions;
  
  
  • ensure that working people and communities are supported through the transition to a clean energy economy;
  
  
  • generate investment in new clean energy jobs;
  
  
  • comply with international rules; and
  
  
  • begin urgently.