The Assembly

About the Assembly
The Trade Union Assembly on Labour and the Environment was organized by UNEP in co-operation with the International Labour Organization (ILO), Sustainlabour and Global Compact.

The event, which takes place from 15th to 17th January 2006, at UNEP Headquarters in Nairobi, aims to reinforce the social and labour dimension of environmental conservation and sustainable development. It also aims to strengthen the relationship between UNEP, and the world of labour.
According to Agenda 21, “Trade Unions should play an active role in the sustainable development activities of international and labour organizations, particularly within the United Nations System.”
UNEP’s initiative to build a partnership for labour and the environment is an extension of its efforts to engage Major Groups and Stakeholders in environmental conservation and the work of the organization.

Until now, labour organizations have been regularly involved in UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (UNEP/DTIE)’s annual Consultative Meeting with Industry Associations in Paris. UNEP/DTIE also commissioned a study in 2004 analysing the actual and potential role of labour unions in the process towards more sustainable consumption and production patterns, providing a number of case studies from Germany, United Kingdom, United States, South Africa and Indonesia.

Prior to that, at the World Summit and Sustainable Development (WSSD), UNEP co-hosted a high level meeting with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) entitled 'Fashioning a New Deal'. The key objective of this conference was to identify linkages between sustainable employment practices and environmental management. It resulted in a commitment by UNEP, ILO and ICFTU/TUAC to start a joint programme of work on labour and sustainable development issues.

Among the trade union bodies that attended were some of the largest federations of Trade Unions, namely the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), the World Confederation of Labour (WLC), the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) to the OECD and the SustainLabour Foundation.

The Assembly marked a step towards a wider and more profound partnership in this direction

Objectives
To promote trade unions action on the environment and sustainable workplaces.

To reinforce the social and labour dimension of sustainable development

To build capacity for contributing to national frameworks for action.

To strengthen the relationship between trade unions, industry, other major groups, UNEP and other UN bodies to advance in the environment and sustainability agenda.

To identify trade unions objectives on environmental issues such as climate change, energy, chemicals, health, water, enterprise social responsibility and to identify requisites for change such as just transition measures.

To agree recommendations to governments for taking trade union perspective on environment and sustainable development into account.