Decarbonizing energy intensive industries: what are the risks and opportunities for jobs?

By Philippe Pochet, et. al. - European Trade Union Institute, June 2, 2022

It is becoming increasingly clear that oil and coal have no future and the era of combustion vehicles is slowly coming to an end. This is already a huge challenge but decarbonizing energy intensive industries (steel, chemicals, cement, ceramics and other basic materials) is even more complicated.

A joint project of the European Trade Union Institute and the European Climate Foundation was set up to analyse the main pathways for the transformation of these industries with regard to the expected employment effects thereby recognising that de-industrialisation is not the adequate method and that the EU needs to maintain a strong competence base in these industries .

This hybrid conference will discuss the results of this research, taking account of the main technological pathways, regional differences and estimating also the possible effects of a future Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. After Russia’s assault on Ukraine, the completely new geopolitical situation is brutally exposing Europe’s dependence on fossil energy and raising the stakes.

Schedule

9.30 Opening and welcome

Philippe Pochet, ETUI
Philipp Niessen, European Climate Foundation
9.45 First results from the ETUI-ECF project: Employment effects of decarbonization pathways in energy intensive industries (EII)

Bela Galgoczi, ETUI
10.00 The case of Germany with an outlook on the possible effects of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism

Maria Polugodina (DIW Econ), Dóra Fazekas and Bence Kiss-Dobronyi (Cambridge Econometrics)
10.25 Decarbonisation challenges for EII in Poland

Aleksander Szpor, Instrat
10.50 Coffee break

11.00 Discussion

11.30 The case of EII-s in France

José Jesus Serrano Rincon, Syndex Spain
11.50 EIIs in Spain on decarbonisation path – what does this mean for jobs?

Raquel Barreiros, Syndex Spain
12.10 Discussion on France and Spain

12.30 Lunch

13.30 The case of EII-s in the UK

Vera Trappmann, Jo Cutter and Ursula Balderson, University of Leeds
13.50 Just transition in practice: the Taranto case, Italy

Matteo Mandelli, University of Milan
14.10 Discussion

14.30 Policy debate – What is at stake for EII-s in the new geopolitical context?

Judith Kirton-Darling, IndustriAll
Florie Gonsolin, Cefic
Frank Siebern, Fair Green and Digital Transitions, Research, DG Employment, EC
15.30 End of the workshop

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author.