Sustainable Transport and the Environment Guide - Unite the Union

taking action, would, he said, lead to a worldwide depression worse than the 1920s
and two world wars put together. These figures don’t even take into account the
human impact of climate change which is already causing food shortages, flooding
and population migrations. The action the UK needs to take, according to the UN’s
IPPCC (their climate scientists) is to cut CO 2 and other greenhouse gas emissions by
about 5 per cent a year, every year, with real cuts starting within the next few years 2 .
Other environmental issues like air and sea pollution are important and affect the
health of humans and wildlife.
The current globalised system is also socially unsustainable. Workers, manufactured
goods, and food, have had to travel ever longer distances, often with damaging
impacts on employment, working hours, wage levels, health and safety, and the
economic viability of communities and regions. At the same time, deregulation and
privatisation has reduced affordable, publicly owned, energy-efficient transport
options such as buses and rail. Lastly, our over-reliance on fossil fuel energy from
unstable regions fuels conflict in those regions, as well as damaging the planet.
For us, as trade unionists within the main transport trade union, there is an opportunity
as well as a risk, if we are willing to engage with the issues seriously. What kind of
society do we want? What will be its transport needs, and how will they be met?
What impact will that have on those currently working in the transport industry, on all
our union’s members, on all working people? This document does not pretend to have
all the answers but it is hoped it will help stimulate debate.
Technological solutions, whilst important, are not the main way that our mounting
social and environmental problems are going to be solved. The scale of the problems
is too large and it is extremely unlikely that scientists will achieve enough huge
breakthroughs in the time available. Social, political and economic change will also
be necessary – indeed, inevitable.
In the future, a sustainable transport system will have to be based on a fairer
distribution of costs, on stronger local economies, and thus on shorter transport
distances. This is not so much a technical as a fundamental systemic change. Gordon
Brown has called climate change “the greatest market failure in history” and it is clear
that solutions to this serious problem cannot be left to the market. Everyone should
have the right to work in a way that provides for their needs without damaging their
environment, the sustainability of the planet, or of future generations.
2.3. Impacts
Sustainability and social impacts – especially working time
As the ETF’s TRUST report says – ‘A fast growing sector that is based on poor
quality jobs is neither socially nor environmentally sustainable’. The report goes on
to say, ‘it might be an illusion that in transport it is possible to put economic
sustainability (competitiveness) at the same footing with environmental and social
2 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report – Climate Change 2007
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