- Title
- The myth of a green economy and green jobs: what strategy for labour?
- Title
- ISER Working Paper, no. 2017/1
- Creator
- Cottle, Eddie
- Subject
- Economic development -- South Africa South Africa -- Economic conditions South Africa -- Social policy Economic development -- Political aspects -- South Africa
- Date
- 2017
- Type
- Book
- Type
- Text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59500
- Identifier
- vital:27620
- Identifier
- ISBN 9780868106106
- Description
- This paper seeks to analyse the policy position of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) to that of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in relation to the green economy and green jobs. It is argued that the ITUC position is consistent with the paradigm of the UNEP that the source of the ecological and jobs crisis lays within the problem of a lack of investment in appropriate alternative technologies and not that of capital accumulation and the nature of material production itself. It is further argued that both the ITUC and the UNEP’s paradigm is flawed on the basis of an assumption that technological efficiencies based upon alternative technologies will reduce the carbon footprint of countries. On the contrary this paper argues that the ITUC and UNEP failed to locate their perspective on a historical understanding of the contradiction of technological efficiencies as part of capital accumulation itself and the continuous expansion of production and secondly, that alternative energy production is still reliant of fossil fuels which will not lead to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Finally, this paper argues that the ITUC does not have an alternative position as the notion of the ‘Just Transition’ is trapped within the existing social democratic, sustainable development paradigm which is committed to a system of capitalist growth. The paper argues that the only viable alternative is for labour to develop and struggle for an alternative eco-socialist society.
- Format
- 15 pages, pdf
- Publisher
- Rhodes University, Institute of Social and Economic Research
- Language
- English
- Relation
- ISER Working Paper, no. 2017/1, Working Paper Series: Social Policy and Labour
- Rights
- Cottle, Eddie
- Rights
- http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
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