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Researchers and experts from all over Europe have been given 21 months to come up with a report on the effect of energy conservation on employment. The project, co-ordinated by the London based Association for the Conservation of Energy, involves institutes and consultants in nine countries. The study's aim is to quantify and characterise the number and types of jobs that may be generated by investment in energy efficiency. The contract for the study was awarded by the Commission in December and results are due in July. At the Kyoto conference on climate change in December, trade unions urged ministers to look at the employment consequences of policies to reduce emissions. Governments globally know that measures to mitigate climate change will call for large scale changes in industry over the next ten years. But while unions realise the importance of cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions, they want to avoid changes that would lead to huge job losses.
Bill Jordan of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICTFU) said that "the dichotomy between increasing employment and cutting down on greenhouse gases is a false one". "Trade unions have already shown that they are sensitive to the threat of the greenhouse effect, and have played an important role in encouraging workers' participation at the workplace through 'eco-auditing', looking at ways of cutting down on energy wasting at the workplace."
Trade unions in Europe have called for a total ban on the use of asbestos in production and products. At a seminar in October, ETUC leader Erik Carlslund said health and safety issues should always take priority over competitiveness, and that more must be done to stimulate research into substitutes for hazardous products. Asbestos is already outlawed in several European countries. The ETUC has lobbied the European Commission on the subject of asbestos and for a system of classification for all inhalable fibres along the lines of that for insulation fibres.
European laws most likely to be disregarded by member states are those relating to the environment. Thirteen members now have to account for their failure to adopt national management plans for waste. Meanwhile, many sources of drinking water are contaminated with nitrates from agriculture and exceed levels set on public health grounds, the Commission reported in January. Not one member state has to date implemented the directive on pollution by farming chemicals.
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