In this project, I develop a research program for analyzing the class politics of climate change and the strategic role of labour unions in the sustainability transformation. Recent academic debates have cast a critical light on environmental thought and its inability to interrogate the class dynamics of the climate crisis. The objective of the project is to, first, theoretically refocus environmental thought from consumption to production and, second, empirically examine two labour unions in key sectors of the sustainability transformation – electricity and the forest industry. The project’s results will refocus environmental thought on the social relations of production and strategically aid the environmental movement by teasing out the productive relations between environmental action and the labour unions.
