Since re-invigorating its public role in the climate change debate in 2006, the CFMEU has had extensive discussions with stakeholders in the debate, including via feedback on its discussion paper launched in November 2006. The union's position paper has now been launched. It is available via the link below.

The CFMEU has been involved in the climate change issue since 1990, when it led Australian union involvement in the Federal Government's Ecologically Sustainable Development Working Groups.

In 1992 it wrote one of the first union publications on climate change (anywhere in the world) for the Australian Council of Trade Unions: The Greenhouse Effect: employment and development issues for Australians. (see below)

Also in 1992 the CFMEU represented Australian unions at the UN Earth Summit where the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted. The CFMEU was also present as part of an international union contingent in Kyoto in 1997 when the Kyoto protocol to the UNFCCC was adopted. The CFMEU did not "oppose Kyoto" (and never has). It has argued for social justice to be a key consideration in the development of climate change responses.

In 2001 the CFMEU co-wrote the climate change policy of the international union of workers in the mining and energy industries - the ICEM (see below).

From 2006, with the launch of discussions on its new climate change position paper, the CFMEU has renewed its call for all stakeholders to work together to address the threat to humanity and the environment that is posed by global warming.

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Click on the picture  or here to download the 2 MB mpg video of the union's climate change TV ad. It ran on TV stations in mining regions in the second half of 2007 as part of our contribution to the federal election held on 24 November.