CLIMATE CHANGE: Trade Unions Chat Ways On Addressing Worrying Disasters

By AWORI ESTHER LUCY

KAMPALA, Uganda [SHIFTMEDIA] The National Organisation of Trade Unions (NOTU) and the International Labor Organisation are chatting ways towards addressing climate change.
In a virtual hybrid workshop held in Kampala on Friday, NOTU presented its position paper regarding climate change and greening.
NOTU Chairman General Usher Wilson Owere observed that climate change has become a reality much faster than all scenarios predicated. The meeting attended by all NOTU affiliates comes at the backdrop of disastrous floods caused by flash rains that left scores dead in Mbale, eastern Uganda a few days ago.
The heavy rains that pounded Mbale, Kapchorwa and Bududa also left over 100,000 displaced.
“Climate change is not just an environmental issue, as too many people still believe. It is an all-encompassing threat to health, agriculture, peace and security,’ said Owere.
He noted that the persistent droughts, heatwaves, coupled with storms and rising sea levels are signs that the situation is not the best.
He warned that if not tackled to the dot, climate change would render millions homeless, jobless and land inhabitable.
“We need to pay great attention to the activities that cause climate change, and enhance our resilience to its effects,” advised Owere, also the Second Vice President Horn of Africa Trade Unions Confederations (HACTU).
He urged the trade unions worldwide to wake up and fully participate in saving the planet. ‘We have to preserve the planet for the future generation, the way it was reserved for us,” he reechoed.
He assured the delegates gathered at Eureka Hotel in Kampala that the National Organization of Trade Unions was committed in designing activities geared towards mitigating climate change.
ILOs stand on Climatic Change
The International Labor Organization has always called for a bold action to reduce carbon emissions.
The latest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change outlines opportunities to reduce carbon emissions and strengthens the ILO’s call for a just transition to greener economies.
The UN report authored by 278 scientists from 65 countries notes that harmful carbon emissions between 2010 and 2019 have never been higher in human history.
Without immediate and deep emission reductions across all sectors limiting warming to 1.5 0C will be beyond reach, says the report.
“Our jobs and business depend on a healthy planet, we have the opportunity to take action now to reduce carbon emissions while creating millions of decent jobs in the green economy,” said Moustapha Kamil Gueye, head of the ILO’s Green Jobs Programme.