Participants of the Green Jobs Tour 2011 in Schleswig-Holstein. © Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.
In co-operation with the BlueGreen Alliance, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung’s Climate Network brought eight representatives of labour unions and environmental organisations on a green-jobs focussed tour to Europe from September 26 to October 5, 2011. Participants met with political decision makers, policy experts and economic leaders of green businesses in Berlin, throughout the German states of Schleswig-Holstein and North-Rhine-Westphalia as well as Brussels. The main objectives of the tour were two-fold: exposing the participants to Germany’s energy transition to renewables as well as introducing European partners to the benefits of an institutionalised partnership between labour unions and environmental organisations. Among the highlights of the trip was a luncheon discussion with the EU Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard.