Glob. Environ. Change 21, 1215–1223 (2011)

Climate change will have a significant impact on economic production in various ways, including through changes to consumption patterns. This will affect workers, and is leading to a 'jobs versus environment' dilemma, which is already an issue for workers and their unions worldwide. For example, when a trades union is confronted with the option of either supporting construction of a new coal-fired power station with guaranteed jobs (and greenhouse-gas emissions) or fighting against construction in the hope of future green jobs (and greenhouse-gas mitigation), it faces a considerable dilemma.

Nora Räthzel from the Department of Sociology at Umeå University, Sweden, and David Uzzell from the Department of Psychology at Surrey University, UK, undertook extensive interviews with senior policymakers in trades unions to investigate the ways in which international trades unions are conceptualizing the relationship between jobs and the environment. They argue that such interpretations could provide an important basis for climate change policies.

Based on these surveys the authors identified four separate ways in which trades unions discuss and engage with the environment. All of these were found to imply a reinvention of trades unions as a social movement, representing more than just their members interests, but only one went so far as to see nature as a partner in human development. The authors argue that incorporating the idea of nature as a partner would enable a decisive shift from existing policy where nature is seen as subordinate to the economy.