Representatives from the ILR School's Global Labor Institute (GLI) at Cornell are making history this month as part of a delegation of international labor leaders who are discussing a treaty that could establish unprecedented standards for controlling global warming.

The discussions are taking place Dec. 3-14 in Bali, Indonesia, under the auspices of the United Nations -- part of the ongoing Kyoto Protocol process started in 1992.

"U.S. labor has come a long way since opposing the Kyoto Protocol," said Sean Sweeney, GLI director. "At this conference, the trade union movement will be joining together in calling for a stronger treaty involving all major economies that will help us dramatically limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

Sweeney also said that unions and the labor movement are increasingly concerned about the impact of climate change and global warming on the workforce and economic development.

Earlier this year, Sweeney initiated calls to the two major labor federations -- the AFL-CIO and Change to Win -- to begin organizing a delegation to attend the Bali conference to ensure that labor's interests were represented.

The delegation includes 23 U.S. and Canadian delegates from the Service Employees , Electrical Workers, Mine Workers, Steelworkers, Transport Workers, UNITE HERE, Boilermakers, the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council and the Labor Research Association, among others. Three Steelworker delegates from Canada also are with the group.

They are part of a larger international trade union delegation that is meeting with governmental and nongovernmental leaders. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is asking for a worldwide commitment to keep the global temperature within 2 degrees Celsius and reduce greenhouse gas emissions -- which contribute heavily to global warming -- by 85 percent (based on 1990 levels) by 2050.

Sweeney said this new agreement would build on the current Kyoto Protocol, signed by 172 countries in the 1990s and calling for a 5.2 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012. At that time, the United States did not endorse the protocol because the first phase of the treaty did not require large developing countries like China to make emissions reductions. This position was backed by the AFL-CIO, which then represented the majority of U.S. unions.

Now, Sweeney says, the international labor movement is presenting a more unified front with regard to supporting the IPCC's recommendations and a more aggressive plan.

"But at the same time, [we are] promoting a 'green jobs' agenda and a 'just transition' for workers who might be negatively affected by changes in the economy resulting from a new agreement," he said.

Sweeney added that this 'just transition' could include re-education and retraining to help workers find new opportunities in the conservation, wind and solar energy industries and in other renewable energy sectors.

To learn more about the U.N. Climate Change Conference, go to http://unfccc.int/2860.php. For more on GLI's recent climate change conference and to watch a video of the event, go to http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/globallaborinstitute/events/climateChangeConference/index.html.