- Conference
- 2020 Higher Education Service Group Conference
- Date
- 26 September 2019
- Decision
- Carried
UNISON HE conference notes:
1)The Earth’s temperature has already risen by 1.1 degree above pre-industrial levels and that the amount of sheet ice lost annually from the Antarctic has increased six-fold between 1979-2017. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report last autumn warned that we only have 12 years to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees. Carbon emissions need to be cut by 45% by 2030, and reach zero carbon by 2050 in order to avoid a dangerous tipping point.
2)The tremendous impact of the school students strikes and, in particular, the global day of action on 20 September 2019, in shifting government complacency over climate change forcing them to amend the 2008 Climate Change act.
3)UNISON has been leading the way in pension fund fossil fuel disinvestment and campaigning for public ownership of energy companies.
4)The movement to tackle climate change and protect our planet is being led by young people and workers from around the world.
UNISON HE conference believes:
i)Climate change is a trade union issue.
ii)That the future of our planet is at risk if we don’t organise now to force governments to cut emissions in line with the IPCC report.
iii)There should be just transition for workers.
iv)That universities are often at the front line of researching the detrimental impact of climate change and should be well placed to lead by example in terms of ensuring that climate justice is at the heart of their work.
v)That we must keep the pressure up. The school students have led the way, now the trade union movement as a whole must continue to act to ensure that they don’t fight alone.
Conference calls on the Higher Education Service Group Executive (HESGE) to:
A) Work nationally with the National Union of Students (NUS), other Higher Education (HE) trade unions, people and planet, Green Jobs Alliance, Campaign Against Climate Change, and other relevant organisations to produce negotiating guidance on the steps that universities can take to tackle global warming and the climate emergency,
Conference calls on the HESGE to work with Higher Education branches to:
B) work with the Student Unions, other campus unions, student societies – such as people and planet – to promote awareness of the climate emergency and action that can be taken to address it. Work with these bodies on all of the points below;
C) call on their university employers to declare a climate emergency and to work with their campus trade unions and student unions to agree and implement a green university plan;
D) work with their university/ies to establish Climate Action Groups which will work with Students’ Unions, Trade Unions and all relevant departments within the institutions. This should produce a clear and comprehensive strategy that commits the institution to taking a holistic approach on climate change;
E) call on UK Universities to meet net zero carbon emissions as institutions by 2025 through a just transition. This should be achieved by carrying out a climate risk analysis and producing a comprehensive action plan and should incorporate specific actions such as bans on single-use plastic on campus, reducing air travel for work, ensuring green investments and that any new building projects and refurbishments deliver the energy efficiency;
F) call for UK universities to incorporate climate justice integrally into inclusion in curricula and pedagogy across departments and courses;
G) call on UK universities to divest from financial investments in institutions, corporations and government bodies that profit from climate and ecological crisis and specifically divest from investments in fossil fuels.