Some industries are declining.  Workers get made redundant.  Let's say that the green agenda in many ways is good for a country as well as being good for a planet.  Let's say a country commits to a significant investment in developing an infrastructure for renewable and green energy.  This creates new jobs, redundant workers can be retrained and learn new skills and be kitted out to take on these new jobs.

There is a role for unions to play here, in supporting these workers but also in encouraging government and persuading them that this is a good course of action to take. Renewable energy helps to meet energy challenges, new jobs keeps people from needing benefits and from possibly not finding jobs again etc...

Now, if we kept all these things entirely separate and didn't let unions form and promote policy on green issues then it could take much longer for governments to come around to a more innovative way of thinking, they wouldn't have the forethought to retrain workers being made redundant from certain sectors and the links between apparently separate policy areas (environment, energy, employment, welfare) would be missed.

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