(Reuters) INTERVIEW-Unions favour deep CO2 cuts and green jobs

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http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLI243192

INTERVIEW-Unions favour deep CO2 cuts and green jobs

Tue Aug 18, 2009 12:30pm EDT

By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Trade unions are supporting deep cuts in greenhouse gases as part of a planned U.N. climate pact and want to ensure jobs are preserved in a shift to a green economy, a leader of a global labour group said on Tuesday.

More jobs could be created than are lost if governments are serious about promoting a switch from fossil fuels to a low-carbon economy, said Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

"We are aboard. It's a fragile consensus but it is there," Ryder told Reuters of an ITUC endorsement in 2008 of cuts in greenhouse emissions as part of a planned treaty to help avert rising sea levels, more heatwaves, droughts and floods.

The Brussels-based ITUC, which says it represents 168 million workers in 155 countries, wants the new U.N. pact due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December to ensure a "just transition" for workers to a greener economy.

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