One Million Climate Jobs booklet launch

The Alternative Information & Development Centre (AIDC) would like to invite you to a morning seminar where key findings in the One Million Climate Jobs booklet will be discussed. In an initial OMCJ booklet in 2011 we argued that globally we are facing an environmental crisis and an economic crisis and that the creation of a million climate jobs was an opportunity to address both problems jointly.

In the six years since there have been many developments – such as renewable energy being established as part of the electricity supply mix of South Africa and its rapid decline in cost; the development of environmentally friendly construction methods and the roll-out of the Rapid Bus Transit system in some municipalities. But it is not enough.

Today, the threat of accelerating climate change and the damage it is already doing to our ecosystems is ever more evident. Climate change exacerbates inequality and poverty by reducing access to food, water, energy and housing. We urgently need to make changes to our economic system and various forms of production before they destroys our life-support system.

This booklet presents well- researched solutions for South Africa to immediately begin a just transition away from the Minerals-Energy Complex initiated under colonialism, that continues to dominate our capitalist economy, to one in which all basic needs of communities are met equitably and affordably. We know that transition will not be easy and need to ensure that it is not an additional threat or burden for workers and the poor.

With the international negotiations of COP 23 imminent, it is clear that we cannot rely on governments and big business to make the changes that are necessary to avoid climate catastrophe, much less to ensure that there is a just transition. With Donald Trump pulling the USA out of the Paris Agreement, it is all the more evident that we need to revitalize initiatives like the One Million Climate Jobs Campaign.

Please RSVP to richard.worthington@telkomsa.net.

Additional information can be sought via telephone at 082 446 6392.

Program:

• 08:15 - Registration and refreshments
• 09:00 - Welcome by DBSA and brief sketch of relevant work
• 09:10 - Current context for the campaign and energy development in SA (AIDC: R Worthington)
• 09:30 - Overview of book/research and its findings Jonathan Neale (One Million Climate Jobs UK)
• 10:15 - Panel Discussion – opening inputs, including COSATU (LM); SAFTU (ZV); ActionAid / Greenpeace; faith community.
• 10:45 - Panel Discussion plenary session
• 11:40 - Ways forward – plenary discussion of relevant activities and opportunities
• 12:00 - Networking and light finger lunch