Climate change

On 6 November

From 6 November, comrades in Birmingham, Bristol, Sheffield, York, and Liverpool report climate turnouts relatively large for local protests. Others were smaller, but almost every city had something. The mood was generally leftish and receptive. The most common union banners were from the school workers’ union NEU (and UCU in London), but branch contingents were often small and of older members. Fair numbers of left-wing students, but organised uni contingents few or small. A relatively visible Labour Party presence in some places, more Green Party elsewhere. Not so much XR. London’s protest...

Climate change, China, and the Morning Star

To judge by the coverage in the Morning Star , COP26 has been little more than a China-bashing exercise by hypocritical western governments. As a statement from the Communist Party of Britain (published in the MS of 6-7 November) put it: “Attacks at Cop26 on China by US President Joe Biden and others ignore the fact that China is a developing country whose CO2 emissions per head are half those of the US, and whose solar and wind power generations have over the last seven years outstripped those of the whole European Union.” In fact, the “attacks” on China were mild stuff. Biden claimed that...

Climate finance: take it out of the bosses’ hands

A sadly mistaken and confused banner at the 6 November COP26 protest in London The International Energy Agency (IEA) roadmap for net zero by 2050 would cost on average $4 trillion annually until 2050, or just 5% of the new value that the workers worldwide produce each year. There is no indication that the current ruling class can make this happen. Mark Carney’s news of an alliance controlling $130 trillion “capital committed to net zero” sounds impressive, but is flimsy. Less an attempt to save the planet, more an attempt save face for fossil-fuel expanding capitalist business. GFANZ is a...

Sticking issue in Royal Parks

In my last column, I reported that the month-long strike by outsourced workers in Royal Parks had forced a major concession, with Just Ask, the outsourced contractor, proposing to increase sick pay entitlement from six days to a maximum of three months, depending on length of service. But they wanted a whole range of differentials to apply, so that only certain workers would get the increased sick pay. They have now backed down from that, so length of service will be the only variable affecting sick pay entitlement. Obviously, the ideal would be maximum entitlement for all workers from day one...

COP26: Building our movement

After Greta Thunberg issued an invitation to Glasgow’s striking refuse workers, a sizeable contingent of GMB strikers joined the Fridays For Future march in the COP26 city along with 10,000 or so exuberant demonstrators - mainly school students, and parents with small children. Other local trade union branches lined the street with their banners to greet the march as it reached George Square. There’s been a big trade union element within the COP26 Coalition, with its explicit slogan of climate justice. However, often the impression here is more of left union bureaucrats being involved than...

For social foresight against profit priorities: workers’ climate action!

The COP26 talks (Glasgow, 31 October to 12 November) are an embarrassment for the capitalist class. On the one hand they cannot simply ignore the reality of climate change. On the other hand, they are aware of years of failure, the fossil fuel industries’ current plans for a multi-trillion dollar expansion, and the complete absence of a carbon drawdown infrastructure. In 1992, when the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change was established, leading to the COP process, 78% of primary energy generation was from fossil fuels. In 2019, twenty-four COP summits later, it was 79% . And 79% of a 60...

Expropriate the banks!

The world’s biggest 60 banks have provided in the order of $4 trillion of finance for fossil fuel companies and projects since the 2015 Paris Climate Deal. The UK’s Barclays is the worst European culprit. In 2020 it provided $27 billion (£19.4 billion) of fossil fuel funding. Four other UK banks are in the list of 60, including Natwest , still majority government-owned. Climate campaigners have rightly targeted the UK financial sector and the City of London, highlighting their continuing fuelling of climate change. But the dominant demands are essentially for the existing private, deeply...

China, climate and 2030

In 2019 China’s greenhouse gas emissions passed the total of the richer countries (OECD and EU) to reach 27% of the world total (USA 11%, India 7%, EU 6%). Proportional to population, China’s emissions are still much lower than the USA’s (though now higher than the UK’s). And its historical total emissions are much lower. To get from here to a world with average temperature rise limited even to 2C, China will have to cut emissions. For COP26, the UK offers a plan by 2030 to cut emissions to 33% of 2005 levels, and the USA, to cut to 49%. China offers that by 2030 emissions will stop rising...

A union policy on climate (John Moloney's column)

I spoke at an online members’ meeting about the union’s climate change activity on Tuesday 26 October. Although much of the discussion understandably focused on the upcoming COP26 conference, I was keen to emphasise that the real fight for us is after COP, both industrially, in terms of organising around decarbonisation demands in civil service workplaces, and politically, in terms of pressuring the government to take radical action. The government has no serious plan, either as an employer, for the decarbonisation of government workplaces, or at societal level for meeting its targets for...

Rich pour out emissions and COP26 warm words

Over 400 new coal mines underway or announced as of June 2021. 118,500 new oil and gas wells projected to start up in 2021-2, 468 new oil and gas pipelines or pipeline expansions in active development as of February 2021. Behind the empty words of COP26, the terrible reality is that the capitalist class is investing trillions of dollars in expanding extractive industries and the production of CO2 emitting machines. The personal consumption alone of the capitalist class is responsible for world-altering carbon emissions. The highest-income 1% emit 15% of global emissions, more than double the...

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