The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) national council meeting over October 9-11 adopted key resolutions around climate change amid significant and vigorous debate.
Two resolutions were adopted after NTEU member surveys in NSW and Victoria drew thousands of responses.
The first was adopted by two-thirds of the delegates, with opposition registered by delegates from Queensland and Western Australia, who wished to defer a decision until 2010.
The resolution joins the growing number of calls on the ALP and opposition to abandon the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) as a means to tackle global warming, in favour of a strategy that does not primarily rely on market mechanisms.
It asserts the goal of 100% renewable sources of energy, a minimum emissions cut target of 40% (on 1990 levels) by 2020, in line with the call from the poor nations most vulnerable to climate change. It emphasises the need for a just transition to green (and fair) jobs, with re-skilling based on high levels of public investment.
The resolution also calls for direct public investment in renewable energy, public transport and energy-efficient housing, and changes to industrial laws to allow environmental claims in collective bargaining agreements.
The resolution commits the NTEU to campaign for this position inside the Australian Council of Trade Unions, which would help fuel real debate within the union peak body. To date, the ACTU has endorsed the government's proposed CPRS, which sets a tiny unconditional emissions cut target of only 5% and will transfer billions of dollars from taxpayers to some of Australia's biggest polluting corporations.
The second motion on climate change campaigning commits the NTEU to participating in the newly launched ACTU "Union Climate Connectors" initiative, and in climate campaign initiatives such as the national Walk Against Warming protests on December 12.
The ACTU campaign offers union members free training and support to help raise awareness of climate change in their workplaces and communities, and the NTEU will tailor material to best suit campaigning within the higher education sector.