Policy Recommendations

For defence companies:

  • Set up structures and programmes so as to include workers at all levels in decarbonisation and diversification planning and implementation;

  • Create contractual clauses for companies along your global supply chain to comply with, or improve upon, US and UK environmental and employment standards;

  • Make your GHG emissions and other environmental impact data publicly available;

  • Work with suppliers to estimate upstream emissions and environmental impacts for each product and identify opportunities for switching to more environmentally benign inputs;

  • Understand the downstream emissions of customers for each of your products and solutions.

 

“…on the one hand, I am really grateful that I have such a secure job in a secure industry but, on the other hand, it would be wonderful if my job didn’t necessarily have to exist”

— Male defence worker, US

 
 

For trade unions:

  • Create more opportunities for education and dialogue around decarbonization, diversification and Just Transition with rank-and-file defence sector workers;

  • Increase work on building solidarity with, and including the perspectives of, workers in Eastern Europe and the Global South who are supplying the defence sector;

  • Prioritise unionising the ‘green’ sector and improving job security and pay in this sector so that these jobs begin to become more attractive to workers;

  • Press for company forward planning, with consultation from rank-and-file workers, to ensure a Just Transition for their workforce.

 
 
 

For national governments:

  • Enact legislation to include defence sector greenhouse gas emissions in national carbon accounting;

  • Supply significant ring-fenced funding to enable the defence sector to decarbonise and address its other environmental issues, including the retraining of workers;

  • Create contractual obligations for private companies that supply the MoD/DoD to work to high environmental standards and reduced greenhouse gases;

  • Consider transitioning security policies and budget priorities to a ‘human security’ approach, addressing the global and national poverty, inequality, health and environmental crises and investing in the jobs that would accompany this;

  • Set up a UK-wide Just Transition Commission, and US-wide equivalent, to ensure that workers’ voice is central to guiding net zero and other environmental policies.

 

“There is an awful lot we can do with minimal investment and, actually, it would incur long-term savings for the defence sector. For example, solar panels – the facilities that I work in don’t have a single solar panel”

— Male defence worker, UK

 
 
 

For NGOS:

  • Link up with trade unions on relevant shared interests around achieving a Just Transition;

  • Consider focussing on the defence sector as a possible contributor to the problems and solutions you are working on.

  • For defence sector workers:

  • Propose decarbonisation, diversification and Just Transition education and dialogue in your company and union;

  • Demand greater consultation and inclusion in company decision-making on these topics.

 

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