Sustainable mobility
Project implementers
Network of cooperation centres in Lower Saxony and Bremen
Contact persons:
Office for University and Trade Union Co-operation
Dr Uwe Kröcher:
Dr Claudia Czycholl:
Sustainable mobility
Contributions to the socio-ecological transformation
In order to make mobility sustainable and meet the Paris climate protection targets, the transport sector needs to be almost completely decarbonised by 2050. As it has not yet been possible to reduce CO2 emissions in the transport sector in contrast to other sectors, more radical restructuring appears necessary. The centre of the transport system has so far been the private car with its combustion engine. The German automotive industry is a leading global key industry with huge employment effects, but it was already struggling with major overcapacity. Even if e-cars only bring about a "drive turnaround", which most experts believe is far from sufficient, at least a third of the workforce in the automotive industry will be made redundant. At the same time, more and more people are calling for a radical traffic turnaround, which, in addition to traffic avoidance, is primarily intended to achieve a shift to other modes of transport, which would put further pressure on the automotive industry.
The discussion series addresses the transformation of the mobility system from a comprehensive perspective and focuses in particular on overcoming the apparent contradiction between climate and environmental protection on the one hand and securing jobs and employment in the traditional transport sectors on the other. To this end, the social, economic and ecological interests of various actors from the climate and ecology movement, from companies and trade unions and from science are brought together in a "dialogue on the future". Due to the current coronavirus crisis, this dialogue will be conducted in an online series of individual events, which will be introduced with a thematic video contribution. The series is to be continued with further events. Contributions and debates on the planned topics are welcome. Take part by posting your own contributions and comments on the documentation page documentation page!
The series is organised by the network of Office for University and Trade Union Co-operation in Lower Saxony and Bremen in cooperation with the Lower Saxony Alliance for Sustainability. The events listed below take place under the auspices of the Office for University and Trade Union Co-operation at the University of Oldenburg.
Transformative or conservative strategy? Trade unions in the sustainability revolution
Monday, 22 February 2021, 5 pm, with Prof. Dr Klaus Dörre (University of Jena)
The transformation of industrialised society into a carbon-neutral economy and way of life will lead to major upheavals and upheavals that will put trade unions in particular under considerable pressure. Klaus Dörre speaks of an "economic-ecological pincer crisis" in which trade unions find themselves: on the one hand, climate change is forcing a CO2-neutral economy with completely new products and concepts; on the other hand, the previous strategy of redistribution will no longer work because the redistribution mass from the surplus product has so far been fed by fossil-based economic growth, which is no longer ecologically sustainable.
There is enormous pressure on the labour force to simply secure jobs. However, this puts trade unions in danger of only protecting the status quo and fighting against ecological regulations. How can trade unions and works councils, on the other hand, become "transformative" actors that reconcile ecological goals with social goals?
The input was published in the form of a slide presentation about a week before the event on the documentation page, where some materials on the topic are already available. On 22 February 2021, there was the opportunity to join the discussion with the speaker online via BigBlueButton.
