Class & Climate: Colombia’s Just Transition with Lala Peñaranda and Matt Kirkegaard

Colombian oil workers and la Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) are leading the charge for a just transition. Here's what Canada can learn from their worker-led climate plan.

Lala Peñaranda of Trade Unions for Energy Democracy Matt Kirkegaard of Progressive International present the Colombian Oilworkers' Plan — a bold strategy for a worker-led public pathway to transition off fossil fuels, with vital lessons for the Canadian labour and climate movements.

Colombian oil workers are at the forefront of this strategy. Peñaranda and Kirkegaard explain why workers, not corporations or the profit motive, are leading substantive climate action in Colombia and what that means for Canadian workers.

This is the seventh episode of Class & Climate: Perspectives on a Green Economy, a short series from Perspectives Journal and the Green Economy Network mapping how climate action can deliver jobs and long-term affordability for workers—while debunking myths that these goals are a zero-sum trade-off with a clean environment. In this episode, Peñaranda and Kirkegaard survey the history and class interests surrounding Colombia's worker-led climate strategy.

Notes and further reading:

• PI Briefing | No. 17 | The Oilworkers’ Plan
• Petro-Politics | Interview with César Loza, President of la Unión Sindical Obrera (USO)
• Colombia Wants to Phase Out Fossil Fuels

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