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Title: A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy
Description: As the Government of Canada continues to protect and support Canadians through the COVID-19 pandemic, it is also important that the country look to the future. Canadians want to see a growing middle class where no one is left behind. They want a future where their kids and grandkids have access to clean air and water. That future is within reach. Collectively, Canada needs to accelerate climate action to get there. A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy is Canada's plan to build a better future. This plan builds on the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change. It continues down the path that Canadians, their governments, and businesses have been setting. This plan is a cornerstone of the government's commitment in the 2020 Speech from the Throne to create over one million jobs, restoring employment to pre-pandemic levels. The plan includes 64 new measures and $15 billion in investments in addition to the Canada Infrastructure Bank's $6 billion for clean infrastructure announced this fall as part of its growth plan. A Healthy Environment and a Healthy Economy will make life more affordable for households. It will make Canadian communities more livable. And it will, at every turn, focus on workers and their careers in a fair and just transition to a stronger and cleaner economy. The plan will do this through five pillars
Identifier: healthy_environment_healthy_economy_plan.pdf
Identifier (PID): yul:1156044

Title: Carbon Markets After Paris: Trading in Trouble
Description: Since the early 1990s, "putting a price on carbon" has been, perhaps, the primary policy proposal for fighting climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Whether through carbon taxes or cap-and-trade emissions trading schemes (ETS), proponents of carbon pricing see it as a way to guide investment toward green solutions without the need for governments to intervene directly in the economy. ETSs, in particular, have been favored by businesses and neoliberal policy makers seeking to limit emissions without disrupting business-as-usual. For these reasons, great expectations are being placed on ETSs. The climate agreement, signed by the nations of the world in Paris in December, enshrines ETSs as a key mechanism for limiting emissions. But are ETSs effective instruments for reducing emissions? And how should trade unions approach debates around cap-and-trade policies? It has been a decade since the European Union established the world's largest ETS, so there is plenty of evidence available for a reevaluation of trade union positions on cap-and-trade. In the long aftermath of the 2008-9 financial crisis, the price on greenhouse gas emissions in the EU cap-and-trade emissions trading schemes has been too low to incentivize investors to move away from fossil fuels. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)—a supporter of the EU ETS—has called for policies that would raise the cost of emissions while also expressing concern about "carbon leakage," where companies move polluting activities (and associated jobs) to jurisdictions without price constraints on pollution. Such a position threads the needle of trade union debates around the EU ETS without resolving the underlying tensions—nor, it should be noted, shifting EU policy in any appreciable way. With the Paris Agreement giving an even more prominent role to cap-and-trade, unions around the world are likely to face similar debates. In this TUED Working Paper, Sean Sweeney, the director of the International Program for Labor, Climate and the Environment at CUNY's Murphy Institute, argues that it is time for unions to reevaluate their stance on cap-and-trade policy. Market-based solutions may be appealing to business interests and their political allies, but it's going to take direct governmental action to guide a transition to a just, democratic, and sustainable energy system. The now battered neoliberal consensus finds public and democratic ownership and control of a key economic sector to be anathema, but it is precisely what is needed if we are serious about combating climate change.
Identifier: TUED-Working-Paper-6.pdf
Identifier (PID): yul:1156041

Title: Ontario's Climate Change: Discussion Paper 2015
Description: The document is intended to lay the groundwork for a forthcoming comprehensive policy and to facilitate consultation with business, municipalities, industry, Indigenous groups and the public. The paper suggests implementing new regulations and market instruments, including carbon pricing, which will realign economic incentives and disincentives with climate change mitigation goals. The paper emphasizes the importance of climate-smart infrastructure and transportation development to help merge economic growth, resilience, energy efficiency, and emissions reduction strategies. It concludes with a call for the opinions of stakeholders, including how to build upon existing successful policies, which industries to target, how to design climate-friendly built communities, and which carbon pricing mechanism might suit Ontario best. Also available in French.
Identifier (PID): yul:786662

Title: Acting on Climate Change: Solutions from Canadian Scholars
Description: “A scholarly consensus on science-based, viable solutions for greenhouse gas reduction”. Sixty academics from across Canada combined to urge policymakers to adopt a long-term target of at least an 80 % reduction in emissions by mid-century. “In the short-term, we believe that Canada, in keeping with its historical position of aligning with US targets, could adopt a 2025 target of a 26-28% reduction in GHG emissions relative to our 2005 levels.” Policy recommendations include, most immediately: Either a national carbon tax or a national economy-wide cap and trade program; elimination of subsidies to the fossil fuel industry ; and integration of sustainability and climate change into landscape planning at the regional and city levels so that maintenance and new infrastructure investments contribute to decarbonizing. The paper also advocates establishment of East-West smart grid connections to allow hydro-producing provinces to sell electricity to their neighbours; energy efficiency programs, and a “transportation revolution”. Also available in French, as Agir sur les changements climatiques, http://www.sustainablecanadadialogues.ca/files/PDF_DOCS/FR_15mars_20H_lowres.pdf
Identifier (PID): yul:576668

Title: Cap and Trade design principles for Canada
Description: Six principles are outlined, one of which relates to the Oil Sands: "Canada’s oil sands development puts our country in a difficult position, since no other industrialized country faces a situation where it has such a large sector poised for rapid emissions growth. Oil sands will account for close to half (44 per cent) of the projected increase in total Canadian emissions between 2006 and 2020 in a “business-as-usual” scenario, and virtually all (95 per cent) of the projected increase in industrial emissions. The oil sands emissions must not be allowed to expand at this rate or corner the market on allowances to achieve this. The impact on the rest of the economy could be devastating, effectively driving other carbon intensive industries out of business."
Identifier (PID): yul:1122027

Title: Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change - First Annual Synthesis Report on the Status of Implementation
Description: An overview of progress on the programs and policies initiated under Pan-Canadian Framework as of December, including an inventory of provincial programs, and a section on "looking forward." No mention of Just Transition policies in this document. Available also at https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/themes/environment/weather/climatechange/PCF-FirstSynthesis_ENG.pdf, and in French.
Identifier (PID): yul:1127511

Title: Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment
Identifier (PID): yul:1120573

Title: Ontario's Five Year Climate Action Plan 2016 - 2020
Identifier (PID): yul:786663

Title: Acting on Climate Change: Extending the Dialogue Among Canadians
Description: Compiles submissions from First Nations, business, NGOs, labour, youth and private citizens , organized into topics which include Employment and Labour, Social Justice, Indigenous Perspectives, Reinventing Cities, Renewable Energy Challenges, Youth, and more. Submissions were made in response to the first SCD consensus paper from March 2015: "Acting on Climate Change: Solutions from Canadian Scholars". Highlight papers from the responses: “The role of workers in the transition to a low-carbon economy ; “Protect the Environment by Doing More Work, Not Less”; and “Envisioning a Good Green Life in British Columbia: Lessons From the Climate Justice Project”.
Identifier (PID): yul:772772

Title: Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change
Description: This statement was drafted by the federal government in agreement with provincial and territorial governments - with the exception of Saskatchewan, which did not agree to the plan. It is meant to further the climate policy goals established in the Vancouver Declaration by the first ministers. The Pan-Canadian Framework has four main pillars: pricing carbon pollution; complementary measures to further reduce emissions across the economy; measures to adapt to the impacts of climate change and build resilience; and actions to accelerate innovation, support clean technology, and create jobs.
Identifier (PID): yul:1120605

Title: 100,000+ Jobs: Getting Albertans back to Work by Building a Low-Carbon Future
Description: The report states that “Alberta has the potential to create over one hundred and forty-five thousand new jobs — 46,780 jobs in renewable energy, 68,400 jobs in energy efficiency, and 30,000-40,000 jobs in mass transit.” It provides case studies and makes policy recommendations.
Identifier (PID): yul:786666

Title: Falling behind: Canada's lost clean energy jobs
Description: Contributors: Gillian McEachern, Charles Campbell, Matt Price. BlueGreen Canada is a partnership of Environmental Defence and United Steelworkers. The report compares the government investment in clean energy jobs between Canada and the U.S. since Obama became President, and concludes that the lack of investment in Canada is creating thousands of lost jobs for Canadians. If Canada’s spending matched U.S. investment in renewable energy alone, an additional estimated 66,000 jobs would have been created. The actual job gap is much larger once energy efficiency and transportation investment are taken into account. The report suggests an improved path for Canada to try to bridge the jobs gap. Includes a bibliography.
Identifier (PID): yul:575592

Title: Chapter 9: Human Health from "Climate Change Impacts in the United States: The Third National Climate Assessment"
Description: Chapter 9 of the landmark 3rd National Climate Assessment deals with human health impacts of climate change. Taking climate change as a global public health issue, the chapter states: "Key drivers of vulnerability include the attributes of certain groups (age, socioeconomic status, race, current level of health – see Ch. 12: Indigenous Peoples for examples of health impacts on vulnerable populations) and of place (floodplains, coastal zones, and urban areas), as well as the re-silience of critical public health infrastructure. Multi-stressor situations, such as impacts on vulnerable populations following natural disasters that also damage the social and physical infrastructure necessary for resilience and emergency response, are particularly important. Discusses heat stress in general, not as an occupational hazard.
Identifier (PID): yul:1120588

Title: How policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could effect employment
Description: from the CBO: "CBO has analyzed the research on the effects that policies to reduce green house gases would have on employment and concluded that total employment during the next few decades would be slightly lower than would be the case in the absence of such policies. In particular, job losses in the industries that shrink would lower employment more than job gains in other industries would increase employment, thereby raising the overall unemployment rate. Eventually, however, most workers who lost jobs would find new ones. In the absence of policies to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, changes to the climate also might affect employment; however, this brief does not address such changes because that effect would probably arise after the next few decades, and it has not been studied as carefully by researchers." This brief summarizes the findings of three studies which used general equilibrium models to project employment impacts: Ho, Morgensterns and Shih, (2008) Impact of carbon price policies on U.S. Industry. Washington: Resources for the Future; McKibbin et al, (2009) Consequences of alternative U.S. Cap-and-Trade policies. Washington, Brookings Institution; and Montgomery et al (2009) Impact on the economy of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R.2454). CRA International.
Identifier (PID): yul:1120538

Title: Canada's Second Biennial Report on Climate Change
Description: This report presents projections of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada to the years 2020 and 2030, by sector. It also provides information on actions undertaken to address climate change,both federal and provincial, with live links to documents cited in the summary. Also includes information about climate-related support provided to developing countries. This report is submitted every 2 years to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Identifier (PID): yul:826057

Title: Extracted Carbon: Re-examining Canada’s Contribution to Climate Change through Fossil Fuel Export
Description: This study re-examines Canada’s contribution to global climate change in light of the Paris Agreement by looking at extracted carbon - the total amount of fossil fuels removed from Canadian soil that ends up in the atmosphere -whether used for domestic purposes, or exported and combusted elsewhere. It concludes that “Plans to further grow Canada’s exports of fossil fuels are thus contradictory to the spirit and intentions of the Paris Agreement. Growing our exports could only happen if some other producing countries agreed to keep their fossil fuel reserves in the ground. The problem with new fossil fuel infrastructure projects, like Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plants and bitumen pipelines, is that they lock us in to a high-emissions trajectory for several decades to come, giving up on the 1.5 to 2°C limits of Paris.” It follows that “Canadian climate policy must consider supply-side measures such as rejecting new fossil fuel infrastructure and new leases for exploration and drilling, increasing royalties, and eliminating fossil fuel subsidies.” This paper updates and expands a 2011 Climate Justice Project publication, Peddling GHGs: What is the Carbon Footprint of Canada’s Fossil Fuel Exports?, co-authored with Amanda Card.
Identifier (PID): yul:1122028

Title: Jobs for Tomorrow: Canada’s Building Trades and Net Zero Emissions
Description: This report makes job creation projections for construction occupations, based on an aggressive emissions reduction target of Net-zero emissions by 2050 (Canada’s current national emissions reduction commitment is 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030) . Overall, the report concludes that the Net-zero emissions reduction target could generate nearly 4 million direct building trades jobs, and 20 million indirect, induced and supply chain jobs by 2050. Some examples from the report: building small district energy systems in half of Canada’s municipalities with populations over 100,000 would create over 547,000 construction jobs by 2050. Building solar installations would create the next-highest level of construction jobs: 438,350. Building $150 billion of urban transit infrastructure (rapid transit tracks and bridges, subway tunnels, and dedicated bus lanes) would create about 245,000 direct construction jobs by 2050. The report was commissioned by Canada’s Building Trades Unions (CBTU), an umbrella organization affiliated with 15 international construction unions.
Identifier (PID): yul:1122205

Title: Pipes need Jackets Too - Improving Performance of BC Buildings through Mechanical Insulation Practice and Standards - A White Pa
Description: "Based on a survey of peer‐reviewed research and trade journals, interviews with a wide range of professionals who work with mechanical insulation and energy modeling of three different building types, we have identified actions that can be taken by the provincial government, utility companies, local government, developers, engineers and building owners/operators that can save millions of dollars and eliminate thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions each year." The paper provides a literature review and makes recommendations for policy changes at provincial and local levels.
Identifier (PID): yul:637795

Title: Green Technologies and Practices - August 2011
Description: Presents data from the Green Technologies and Practices survey, a survey of business establishments designed to collect data on establishments’ use of green technologies and practices and the occupations of workers who spend more than half of their time involved in green technologies. 75% of business establishments used at least 1 type of green technology in the reference period; the two most frequently reported types of green technologies and practices were those that improve energy efficiency within the establishment, reported by 57 percent of establishments, and those that reduce the creation of waste materials as a result of operations, reported by 55 percent of establishments.
Identifier (PID): yul:1120585

Title: Reduce, reuse, recycle: green technologies and practices at work
Description: Provides the results of a special tabulation of the data from the Green Technologies and Practices survey, from 2012. Reports on the number and distribution of employers who use more than 1 green practice.
Identifier (PID): yul:1120592

Title: Why Green is Your Color: A Woman's Guide to a Sustainable Career.
Description: The career guide was written under contract to the Women’s Bureau by Public Policy Associates, Inc. and Wider Opportunities for Women. It is designed for workers and educators, career counselors and training providers, and discusses a range of in-demand and emerging jobs, as well as job training opportunities and career development tools.
Identifier (PID): yul:1120536

Title: Climate Change and Labour: Impacts of Heat in the Workplace
Description: The report identifies heavy labour and low-skill agricultural and manufacturing jobs as the most susceptible to heat changes caused by climate change. India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Cambodia, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and part of West Africa are the countries most at risk. Quoting the IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report, it states that “labour productivity impacts could result in output reductions in affected sectors exceeding 20% during the second half of the century–the global economic cost of reduced productivity may be more than 2 trillion USD by 2030.” Even if countries meet their Paris emissions reductions targets, rising temperatures may cut up to 10 percent of the daytime working hours in developing countries. On the human scale, the authors surveyed more than 100 studies in the last decade which document the health risks and labour productivity loss experienced by workers in hot locations. Several important indirect effects of heat stress are raised: alteration of work hours to avoid the heat of the day; the need to work longer hours to earn the same pay for those whose productivity falls due to heat stress, or suffer income loss; increased exposure to hazardous chemicals when workplace chemicals evaporate more quickly in higher temperatures; and possible exposure to new vector-borne diseases. The report calls for protection for workers , including low cost measures such as assured access to drinking water in workplaces, frequent rest breaks, and management of output targets, incorporating protection of income and other conditions of Decent Work.
Identifier (PID): yul:823213

Title: A Human Health Perspective On Climate Change
Description: One purpose of this document is to identify research gaps to increase the understanding of climate change and health. Expanding our understanding of the often indirect, long-term, and complex consequences of climate change for human health is a high priority and challenging research task.
Identifier (PID): yul:1120664

Title: Heat Illness Prevention Training Guide: A Lesson Plan for Employers
Description: These training materials are adapted from work the Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP), University of California, Berkeley, and part of the Worker Occupational Safety and Health Training and Education Program (WOSHTEP), which is administered by the Commission on Health and Safety at University of California at Los Angeles. Designed to be delivered in 45 minutes or in 15 minute modules, and can be delivered by shift supervisors. Fact sheets in Spanish and English.
Identifier (PID): yul:1120647

Title: NIOSH criteria for a recommended standard: occupational exposure to heat and hot environments
Description: Criteria documents contain a critical review of the scientific and technical information about the prevalence of hazards, the existence of safety and health risks, and the adequacy of control methods. By means of criteria documents, NIOSH communicates these recommended standards to regulatory agencies, including the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), health professionals in academic institutions, industry, organized labor, public interest groups, and others in the occupational safety and health community. Heat stress was last addressed in 1986.
Identifier (PID): yul:1120590

Title: The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment
Description: This is the final report , developed by over 100 experts representing eight Federal agencies, led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). "It was called for under the President’s Climate Action Plan and is a major contribution to the sustained National Climate Assessment process. The report was informed by input gathered in listening sessions and scientific and technical information contributed through open solicitations. It underwent rigorous reviews by the public and by scientific experts inside and outside of the government, including a special committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering,and Medicine." Includes a comprehensive overview of many aspects of health impacts, including pollution and air quality. Under the report section on temperature extremes, outside workers are identified as exceptionally vulnerable to heat extremes. “ Certain occupational groups that spend a great deal of time exposed to extreme temperatures such as agricultural workers, construction workers, and electricity and pipeline utility workers are at increased risk for heat-and cold-related illness, especially where jobs involve heavy exertion... Lack of heat illness prevention programs that include provisions for acclimatization was found to be a factor strongly associated with death.” Includes references.
Identifier (PID): yul:1120526

Title: Towards an ILO approach to climate change adaptation
Description: A working paper jointly produced by ILO’s Employment Intensive Investment Programme and the Green Jobs Programme. It explores the implications of climate change, its impacts on the world of work, and the role to be played by the ILO. This report is a detailed description of the relevant ongoing work, including the Decent Work Agenda, Green Jobs Programme and Skills for Green Jobs. It also discusses future strategies and priorities for the ILO and identifies three clusters which can serve as a basis for the integration of initiatives: 1) Local resource-based infrastructure, Social Protection, Income and Local Development, 2) Re-skilling, Social Protection and Active Labour Market Policies, and 3) Disaster Risk Reduction and Access to a Range of Financial Services.
Identifier (PID): yul:576657

Title: Work in a changing climate: The Green Initiative: Report of the Director-General
Description: The main body of the Director-General’s Report to the 106th International Labour Conference, June 2017, describes and updates the accomplishments of the ILO Green Centenary Initiative, which was launched in 2013, “to promote the considerable potential for creation of decent work associated with the transition to a low carbon sustainable development path and to minimize and manage the inevitable dislocation that will accompany it.” The report emphasizes the need for research and policy analysis,and includes the following important themes: the need for tripartite responses to climate change; the importance of a global carbon price; and skills development and social protection for the successful green transformation of work processes. The Working Group of the ILO responded to the Director-General's report on June 9.
Identifier (PID): yul:1122077

Title: Middle Class Task Force: Green Jobs update
Description: Focusses on training for green jobs and includes case studies of U.S. training programs in which IBEW and SEIU are involved.
Identifier (PID): yul:1120531

Title: Guidelines for a Just Transition towards environmentally sustainable economies and societies for all
Description: From the website: "The Guidelines are both a policy framework and a practical tool to help countries at all levels of development manage the transition to low-carbon economies and can also help them achieve their INDCs and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The Guidelines are designed to create decent work on a large scale and ensure that social protection exists where needed. They also include mechanisms for social dialogue among governments, workers and employers' organizations throughout policymaking processes at all levels."
Identifier (PID): yul:1121504