We need a Climate Jobs Guarantee
Guaranteeing a good job building a caring and sustainable society to everyone who wants one isn’t just possible, it’s necessary.
We have a 10 year window to limit the worst impacts of climate change. It’s time to get to work.
The Climate Jobs Guarantee is a transformative plan that will create millions of good jobs in every sector. We can rapidly decarbonise in all industries and rebuild vital community services, securing a safer future for all of us.
Pledge your support for a Climate Job Guarantee and to join the fight to take our democracy back from big business.
A Climate Jobs Guarantee
will solve the climate crisis
There is so much good work that needs to be done to solve the climate crisis. It will take millions of people to create a renewable energy grid, build energy efficient houses, care for the elderly, teach our children and create vibrant cultural lives for our communities. A Climate Jobs Guarantee will create good jobs that solve the climate crisis and improve millions of people’s lives.
A Climate Jobs Guarantee will end unemployment and get our economy back on track
After the pandemic nearly 2 million people are looking for more work. A Climate Jobs Guarantee would make sure that if you want a job, you will get one. A Climate Jobs Guarantee will generate economic activity that will breath new life into our communities and help us recover from the impacts of the pandemic.
A Climate Jobs Guarantee will prepare us for climate disasters
Last summer’s bushfires were a glimpse into the future of climate disasters. We need to be prepared for climate disasters, with resilient food, energy and water systems as well as emergency shelter and transport. We need people who can manage the land to mitigate fires, tradespeople who can rebuild after the worst happens and medical and mental health professionals to heal us and our communities. A Climate Jobs Guarantee will help us prepare for disasters and save lives.
Principles
We are building an unstoppable movement of young people to win public and political support for this transformative idea. But turning this idea into reality is going to take more than just us.
To guide the conversation we have developed these 5 criteria for what any Climate Jobs Guarantee proposal must meet to get our movement’s support.
1. Good jobs for everyone who wants one:
Millions of people can’t find as much work as they want and the threat of unemployment is used by big business to force us to accept poorly paid and insecure working conditions.
A Climate Jobs Guarantee must guarantee anyone — regardless of age, education levels or location — a permanent, unionised job that pays a living wage.
These jobs will have leave entitlements and can be full or part time based on the needs of the person looking for work, raising the standards of work for all workers.
2. Urgent, coordinated action to solve the climate crisis:
The climate crisis is the fight of our lives and there is no shortage of work to be done for the urgent, large-scale action that’s needed to solve it.
The jobs created by a Climate Jobs Guarantee must be meaningful work that enriches and serves our communities, gets us to 100% clean and renewable energy by 2030 and manages the climate impacts we can no longer avoid.
3. Meaningful work that cares for our communities as decided by our communities:
The people who best know what kind of work their communities need are the people who live there.
This program should be administered locally so that these jobs serve real needs in communities. In particular, First Nations Communities must have control over what work happens on their Country.
4. Public service jobs in the hands of the public:
For too long, the needs of big business have been put ahead of the needs of our society.
This is our chance to rebuild our public sector to provide great public services that meet everyone’s needs and revitalise our cities, towns and communities.
The jobs created by a Climate Jobs Guarantee must be public sector jobs that serve real community needs.
5. A living income for all, whether they work or not:
A Climate Jobs Guarantee must not come at the expense of income support for everyone else.
Everyone, whether they work or not, is entitled to the dignity of a living income and the support they need.
Solving the climate crisis is too important to be left in the hands of big business. We need sustained action, coordinated by the government in the hands of the public.
Everyone deserves a good job, great public services and a safe climate. A Climate Jobs Guarantee could be the cornerstone of an ambitious response to the climate crisis that would transform our society and improve the lives of millions of people.
Our politicians have a choice to make: bend to the will of big business or choose a people-first recovery that makes society better than it was before the pandemic.