On the last day of national conference, delegates reaffirmed the union’s commitment to a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels to net zero.
Climate change is already having a direct impact on workers with high temperatures in workplaces, unsafe conditions during severe weather and high fossil fuel energy bills. These risks and costs are increasing every year.
Bringing the composite climate change motion, Stephen Smellie of the national executive council, said: “We’ve just had the hottest day of 2025 and last year was another record-breaking year for high temperatures, as was the year before that, and the year before that. We cannot just look away and hope this stops.
“We know the solutions to climate change and they’re available. We need to be building more renewables. We need to be taking energy companies into public ownership, employing thousands to retro fix homes, investing money in cheap and low carbon public transport. These solutions are expensive, but they’re not as expensive as not doing anything about it. Fossil fuels have only one safe future and that’s leaving them in the ground.”
Lindsay McNaught, chair of energy committee, said: “The climate change threat is already here and it’s already shaping the lives and work of our members. UNISON has a reputation for stepping up at such moments. To turn commitment into action, we must all do it together.
“Our members working in the energy and WET (water, environment and transport) sectors, are at the heart of UNISON’s green energy work. They’re not just affected by climate change work, but they are delivering it. Our members are the ones updating the National Grid to handle the shift to low carbon energy. They’re the ones installing solar panels and heat pumps in private and public buildings. They’re delivering energy efficiency projects to cut bills and are the ones keeping water services resilient in the face of drought. This is frontline climate work.
“Together we can deliver policies that will deliver an effective future because we are those who are already building it.”
Speaking about UNISON’s work in local government, Mr Smellie, said: “UNISON members are working with public services workers to get councils to meet net zero targets. Over the past few years, we have tripled the number of green reps we have in our branches. This role is particularly attractive to our new members and new activists, which is very encouraging.
“We have many green reps, good net-zero policies and resources available and we need to get our branches working more closely, so that our members can respond to climate change deniers robustly and knowledgeably.”
This is of growing importance in the face of Reform UK with its anti-global warming beliefs.
Speaking about the direct impact of climate change on her work, a home carer from South Lanarkshire, said: “As a home carer, I visit service users’ homes morning, noon and night. I am not able to switch on air conditioning when it’s too hot, I can’t stay at home when it’s so wet I can’t see out my car windows. I can’t decide to work from home when there’s a severe weather warning.
“Recently during a severe weather warning, one of my colleagues was at risk of serious injury when she was on home visits. A tree fell, missing her car by inches. It could have caused her serious injury. These are the conditions that we are working in, as we’re rushing from house to house, making sure our service users receive essential medication and care.”
The delegate called for service agreements, that include the” impact of climate change both present and future” to protect our workers.
Describing the catastrophe that lies ahead if net-zero policies aren’t upheld and enforced, Patrick Knowles, energy branch, said: “I find myself thinking about the world that we are heading for and what 2050 might look like. More likely than not, I’ll be spending those years in a world of extreme weather events, food shortages, mass extinction and with hundreds of millions of climate refugees. Sometimes when I think about that, I struggle to get through the day, but we can’t look away and hope the problem goes away.
“Now is the time to act and with thousands of members in the energy sector, we have more leverage and more responsibility to act than most.”
Conference agreed to motions that were passed at the 2024 TUC Congress, which included:
- declaring that climate change will affect all jobs and all workers adversely.
- climate change is a trade union issue for all of us.
- calling for heat strikes in the face of rising workplace temperatures.
- calling for a year of trade union climate action, including engagement with community and climate justice groups.
In addition, UNISON committed to many other measures, including:
- a year of climate action.
- providing training for all UNISON reps in green bargaining.
- establishing a national and regional network of green reps identifying heat and extreme weather hazards in the workplace and working with extreme heat campaigns.
- support branches to organise relevant outreach events, in branches and workplaces, as well as with wider groups, including climate activists, healthcare campaigners etc.
The article Keeping net zero at the heart of UNISON’s agenda first appeared on the UNISON National site.
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