Sustainable Transport and the Environment Guide - Unite the Union

Currently all corporations are legally obliged to put profit above all other
considerations. The only option is to break this short termism through legal regulation
and pressure from both consumers and workers. In the current climate, where the
failings of ‘the market’ have become apparent, greater regulation is once more being
talked about as a serious option.
However the transport sector employers, like most others, has tended to resist
straightforward regulation and prefer ‘market based mechanisms’ (like carbon trading
and tax breaks) where companies are given financial incentives to reduce emissions.
The Kyoto protocol is a mechanism to do this – through monitoring carbon levels and
a cap and trade system. A cap is put on the total amount of carbon emissions (and
other greenhouse gases) and then this amount is divided up amongst countries, largely
on the basis of their current emissions. Trade unions have tended to support these
schemes, as have those employers who wish to be seen as ‘progressive’, on the basis
that they level the playing field and create a more predictable and certain business
environment.
The current Kyoto agreement expires in 2012 and trade unions have been involved for
several years in the negotiations towards a new agreement. This year (2009) is being
seen as the ‘crunch’ year to get a new Kyoto agreement thrashed out. Some of the
main areas that this will consider – including the distribution of permits, the extent to
which transport will be brought into the scheme, and whether money could be ‘ringfenced’
for use in green projects like public transport, are highlighted in the short
appendix at the end of this report.
2.8 Conclusion
There has been long standing union concern that deregulation and privatisation have
led to a reduction in affordable, less fuel intensive public transport options open to
people. This is part of a worldwide trend towards increasing reliance on more fuel
intensive transport such as private cars, trucks and planes.
Business as usual is likely to lead to these trends continuing, and then (it is now being
seen) to economic crisis. New priorities for these new times would entail substantial
job opportunities, though this would require careful planning and transition measures,
with union involvement crucial. Economic crisis may lead to the worst of all worlds,
with jobs lost in the high carbon transportation industries and not created in local
industries and in the lower carbon transportation industries. A response to the
economic crisis that includes proper strategic planning for the whole transport sector,
and a shift in subsidies and other forms of financing, would allow enormous scope for
sustainable mobility and sustainable employment. Such a response, wresting control
back from the hands of the market, is increasingly being seen as essential if we are to
have a socially and environmentally sustainable transport system.
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