UNEP’s Labour & Environment initiative aims at strengthening the role of international labour communities in areas related to environmental development in particular and sustainable development and poverty alleviation in general.

UNEP’s Labour & Environment initiative also aims at promoting the active participation of workers and their trade unions in decisions on the design, implementation and evaluation of national and international policies and programmes on environment and development, including employment policies, industrial strategies, labour adjustment programmes and technology transfer.

Workers and their representatives, trade unions, have been identified by Agenda 21 as vital actors in facilitating the achievement of sustainable development in view of their experience in addressing industrial change, the extremely high priority they give to protection of the working environment and the related natural environment, and their promotion of socially responsible economic development.

The existing network of collaboration among trade unions and their extensive membership provides important channels through which the concepts and practices of environmental conservation and sustainable development can be supported.

UNEP held milestone consultations with the labour community during the international Assembly on Labour and the Environment (WILL 2006) held in Nairobi from 15 to 17 January 2006. Over 150 representatives of Labour organizations, trade unions, governments, the private sector and UN bodies discussed means to allow Trade unions to establish partnerships and frameworks for joint environmental policy, and set priorities to improve the working environment and the overall environmental performance of enterprise. It was agreed that immediate and urgent action towards the implementation of MEAs must be supported and implemented within the labour community.

For the full text of the WILL 2006 Resolutions please click here>>