Report details a path to economic recovery through green jobs.
Latinos are one of the groups most affected by the pandemic.
Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images
A few days ago a report was published that promotes a path to economic recovery through equity, climate resilience and the quality of employment.
The report “Putting California on the High Road: A Jobs & Climate Action Plan for 2030” provides recommendations on how to support the state’s working families as California begins to chart a path to a carbon-free future.
At the same time, it is trying to boost an economic recovery that can prevent the COVID-19 recession from turning into a depression.
Carol Zabin, director of the green economy program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center, told La Opinion that the report was mandated by the California legislature, under AB 398, which was an important climate law that extended the program of limits and trade a couple of years ago.
“That piece of legislation for the first time required the state to submit recommendations on how to support workers as we make this great economic transition to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Zabin, who is the lead author of the report.
The final project was a collaboration between the UC Berkeley Labor Center and the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research.
After reviewing more than a hundred of the state’s policies and programs, the focus is on making sure there is support for workers with the changes to green jobs.
An example of success so far in terms of reducing carbon emissions is the renewable portfolio standard that utilities like PG&E and So Cal Edison have been told that they have to get electricity from increasingly cleaner sources.
“Over time that has really worked. Solar plants have been built that have produced good union jobs. That’s a success story, “said Zabin.
However, the report also addresses the just transition element, as many workers are trapped in the fossil fuel industries it is trying to move away from to meet climate goals.
Zabin said they found some problem areas where low-wage jobs persist, but also the tools to make them better. These include training for workers and providing skills to the best employers who actually invest in their workforce rather than simply trying to exploit workers and the environment.
“We have a low-wage job problem, particularly for Latino workers,” Zabin said. “And we have many policy tools that can be added or supplemented to these climate policies to ensure that workers from disadvantaged communities and of color have pathways to good jobs that are accessible.”
Despite the fact that the report was created before the coronavirus pandemic emerged, Sabin stressed that it continues to be a good path towards reconstruction.
“We can do it in a way that is ecological and equitable; I also think that it shows the specific tools that can go together, the climate policy tools and the labor policy tools, ”he said.
To read the report visit: https://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/putting-california-on-the-high-road-embargoed/
