23 September 2019

United Nations Climate Action Summit

The ILO will be taking part in the UN Climate Action Summit, which takes place on 23 September 2019 at the UN General Assembly in New York. The aim of the summit is to give impetus to the commitments made under the Paris Agreement on climate change, to limit global temperature increases to well below two degrees Celsius with an endeavour to limit them to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
 
The Summit will focus on nine action areas which will be led by 19 countries in total and supported by international organizations. The ILO will support the ‘Social and Political Drivers’ action area, which focuses on the economic, environment and social issues arising from the transition towards greater sustainability. The aim is to find ways to maximize decent work opportunities, reduce inequalities, promote social justice and enhance countries’ efforts to improve people’s health.

In the run up to the summit, the ILO is asking leaders to make specific commitments for a just transition for all. It has drawn up a set of guidelines to help countries move to environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive economies. The Just Transition Outcomes under the Social and Political Drivers action area will spotlight five key issues:
  • Social dialogue
  • Employment, social and economic impacts
  • Skills development
  • Social protection
  • Technology and knowledge transfer
  • Proposed outcome 1

    Creating mechanisms of inclusive social dialogue

    to forge strong social consensus to enable transformative change without major adverse social and economic disruption. Social dialogue involving all private and social actors have the potential to raise climate ambition by consolidating actions of state and non-state actors and contribute to preventing political and social resistance.

  • Proposed outcome 2

    Assessing employment, social and economic impacts

    of ecological transition and green jobs potential. Country-tailored assessment methods can be employed to test various climate policy options and define required sectorial and labour market policies and the financial requirements to implement such policies.

  • Proposed outcome 3

    Implementing skills development and upgrading measures

    to enable transitions in labour markets, and low-carbon and more resource-efficient enterprise development and green job creation for women and men. There are methodologies for skills needs assessment and anticipation, requalification and entrepreneurship to minimise job disruption and maximise opportunities for green job creation.

  • Proposed outcome 4

    Designing innovative social protection policies

    to protect workers and vulnerable groups in the context of more ambitious climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. Such measures would promote social justice as an indispensable dimension of ambitious climate action.

  • Proposed outcome 5

    Increasing the transfer of technology and knowledge to developing countries, as well as innovation and responsible investment

    by both public and private entities that can stimulate economic transformation, sustainable and inclusive growth, and green job creation, including rallying the private sector and actors in the investment and finance community.