The European Green Deal risks deepening economic and social divisions between east and western EU countries, trade unions say, warning the 27-member bloc risks imploding before it reaches its 2050 climate neutrality goal.
Trade unions have stepped up warnings that the Green Deal put forward by the European Commission in December last year will put millions of jobs at risk, without any assurances that workers in affected industries will have a future.
“We are talking about almost 11 million jobs directly affected in extractive industries, energy-intensive industries and in the automotive industry,” said Luc Triangle, secretary-general of IndustriAll, a federation of trade unions.
“Those jobs won’t necessarily disappear,” Triangle told EURACTIV in an interview. “But there needs to be a future perspective for jobs in these industries,” which is currently not clear, he said.
Last week, the European Commission tabled a groundbreaking EU Climate Law, aimed at putting into hard legislation the EU’s goal of becoming the first climate-neutral continent in the world by 2050.
The EU executive is now expected to follow-up with an industrial strategy on Tuesday (10 March), outlining new growth areas for Europe as it moves towards a greener and more connected future.
But while the draft strategy places great focus on digitalization, it contains little for traditional manufacturing sectors like steelmaking, automotive and chemicals, which are expected to be hit hardest by the transition to net-zero emissions.
“It’s easy to say we need to reach ambitious climate targets by 2050 and 2030,” Triangle said. “But the industrial strategy should give the answer to the ‘how’ we will get there. And at the moment, we don’t have those answers yet.”
Read more at EurActiv
The Eco-Freaks all need to go and strand themselves on a island fora year or more
Jobs!? We don’t need no stinkin’ jobs!
We can get those green jobs (non-existent), work for the ever growing goverment, or best of all go on the government dole, and sit around a complain about not getting more.
Not only how, but in reaching those targets, what will it really accomplish? Will the bad weather stop? Will so-called “clean” tech: turbines and solar panels no longer need oil & gas for production and maintenance?
What they are doing has nothing to do with “saving” the environment.
These liberal narrow minded politicians could,nt care less about what happens to the People all they care about is Politics and the money they get from the Government and the idiots from Greenpeace
It seems that union leaders recognize Big Green Deals threaten their members. Who believes that the UAW prefers Bernie and AO-C’s anaemic health-care-for-all over the benefits they negotiated?
It’s obvious that the Socialists scare jobs to the Third World, then offer the unemployed nothing more than a hug. Hugs don’t pay the bills.