I will develop today the “Green Jobs” topic by presenting the main findings of the report “Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable Low-Carbon World” and some reflections of the partners of the Green Jobs initiative which were not included in the report. I will focus mainly on the policy recommendations made by the partners of the “Green Jobs” initiative.
The report defines green jobs as work in agriculture, industry, services and administration that contributes to preserving or restoring the quality of environment. One of the main findings of the report is that green jobs do not automatically represent “decent work”, meaning “opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity”. Low income, precarious employment, inappropriate working practices are many times associated with green jobs.
The report finds that green jobs have a significant potential to contribute to the goal of sustainable development but there is a need for government leadership and for a coherent policy framework in order to speed up the process of creation of ” decent” green jobs. Another issue to be dealt with is the transition for enterprises and workers affected adversely by the transition to the green economy. Of course, “the business case” for green jobs has to be object of further research. Supporters of green technologies and business practices have to compete with enterprises which offer low prices but externalize their social and environmental costs.
The partners of the “Green Job” initiative proposed several immediate and effective measures in order to deal with the challenges associated with green jobs. Still they admit that these measures are necessary but not sufficient to ensure the transition to the green economy. First of all, there is a need to gather more information about issues like the changes that green jobs induce to labour market, the skills needed to perform these jobs. There is a need for investment in green technologies and jobs, for research and for policy frameworks.
But above all, there is a need for a coherent approach and not a piece-meal one. There is a need to put together at the table the main actors: stakeholders, businesses and Governments in order to decide together upon a strategic approach to achieve the goal of a green economy.
