Boilermakers DLA Abe Breehey addresses a session titled “Manufacturing Climate Solutions” at the UN Conference on Climate Change in Poznan, Poland, on Dec. 10, 2008.
BOILERMAKERS WERE represented for a second year in a row at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change last December. The meeting, in Poznan, Poland, included an event cosponsored by the Boilermakers at which Dir. of Legislative Affairs Abe Breehey discussed how Boilermakers can perform many of the jobs needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including manufacturing key elements of the green technology supply chain.
“It is clear that taking action to address climate change has the potential to reinvigorate the American manufacturing sector as new products and technologies that reduce emissions come to market,” he told the group. “This is not just about building windmills. It is about the 5,000 manufactured parts that go into a turbine, all of which we can make right here at home. There is a real opportunity here to use climate policy to grow both the construction and industrial sectors of our union.”
The panel discussion involved several aspects of a study conducted by Duke University’s Center for Globalization, Governance, and Competitiveness on the role domestic manufacturing will play in a green economy. The event, “Manufacturing Climate Solutions,” was cosponsored by the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, the Environmental Defense Fund, the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, the United Association, and the Building and Construction Trades Department.
