The Environmental Lens – a new tool for mainstreaming climate change in union projects

ITF affiliate, the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers’ Union of Uganda, attended a climate change workshop in Nairobi last week. The seminar brought together unions and civil society organisations from East Africa, such as Forest Action Network Kenya, which campaigns for ‘a prosperous and just society that manages its natural resources sustainably’. [http://fankenya.org/]. One of the main aims of the seminar was to increase cooperation between these organisations.

The participants were guided through a new tool – the Environmental Lens – a method used to carry out environmental impact assessment of projects.  Following the workshop, our affiliate plans to develop a manual on climate change for unions to use, which we will make available online.

This seminar is part of a number of workshops being organised around the world by Swedish solidarity centre, LO-TCO http://www.lotcobistand.org/ and funded by Sida www.sida.se. There will be another workshop in Amman in October 2011.