
The global transition to a carbon-neutral economy is expected to create more opportunities in the labor market, often called green jobs. Juliana Oliveira-Cunha wrote that in developing countries, active public policy at the national and local levels is needed for reskilling and developing workers in greener, higher productivity jobs, and this requires a you better understand what green jobs are and how to count them.
Decarbonizing the economy and tackling climate change is a pro-growth strategy in the long term. Besides avoiding the harmful effects on the environment and quality of life, which can cost the world at least 5% of GDP every year, the global transition to a carbon-neutral economy offers many opportunities for growth. This includes the creation of new markets and associated value chains to serve the growing international demand for low-carbon products and services. The invention and diffusion of cleaner technologies throughout the economy also provides opportunities for improved productivity and greater resource efficiency.
For developing countries to reap the benefits of sustainable growth, cities must be at the forefront of climate action. This is especially important for poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, which are urbanizing at extremely fast rates and need to accommodate higher demand for services and jobs in cities. . In the 11th session of the World Urban Forum focusing on “transforming our cities for a better urban future”, several events highlighted the need for sustainability and resilience to be included in all areas of urban policy. From low-emitting construction materials to environmentally friendly urban planning, panels and training events presented solutions that can be easily deployed by local governments and the private sector.
Only a few events, however, clearly refer to occupations – notably, green jobs – and the related skills and labor market policies needed to support job creation in a climate-resilient and more productive economy. Rather than signaling the importance of green jobs for sustainable urban development, their relative lack of representation at the World Urban Forum may actually reflect a lack of clarity about what constitutes a green job, especially in the developing cities of the country.
What are green jobs?
Without a singular or universally accepted definition for green jobs, quantifying them is extremely difficult. In addition, the definitions are often not clear enough to encourage policy action, or are too narrowly focused on certain industries or activities such as environmental protection and resource management. Combined with the data limitations documented in many developing countries, this creates obstacles for the launch of comprehensive programs aimed at supporting much-needed job creation and workforce training. It also means that public policy and investments are often poorly directed, and the green jobs agenda is thus sidelined.
In simple terms, a green job can be defined as one that is compatible with or supports low carbon goals. For this reason, green jobs can be found in many sectors of the economy, both emerging and existing, as workers adapt to lower technologies and more sustainable practices. Restricting green jobs to employment in a small set of industries that are directly related to decarbonization or that contribute least to greenhouse gas emissions may reduce the potential for job creation.
For example, a narrow sectoral approach excluding key jobs that are key to delivering the transition, including in education, consulting, and government. This ‘top-down’ approach also creates additional measurement issues as the same job can be considered green or ‘brown/dirty’ depending on the industry in which it is located. Even within industries, there is high variability in the carbon footprints and sustainability of individual companies. More granular measurement methods are therefore needed to make estimates of green job creation that add to the industry level.
Understanding the ‘greening’ potential of jobs
An alternative exercise is to evaluate the ‘greenness’ potential of jobs based on their skill requirements or task content. This allows for a more nuanced and dynamic analysis of the labor market, focusing attention on sustainable growth opportunities arising from ‘greening’ jobs. For example, a recent study in the UK mapped both directly and not directly green jobs, which currently account for approximately 20% of employment according to conservative estimates. For purposes of definition and measurement, these jobs are grouped into three main categories (shown in the figure below).
Figure 1 – Main job categories of green jobs
Note: The study is based on the occupational level classification developed by O*NET in the United States. It applies a relatively broad definition of green jobs to twelve economic sectors.
on directly green group, represented by two darker shades:
- New and emerging Jobs are those created as a result of cleaner technologies and processes and either entirely new or from an existing activity. Examples are recycling coordinators, biomass plant technicians, air-quality control specialists, and environmental economists.
- Enhanced skills Jobs are those that can be changed significantly to align with low carbon goals. These include agricultural workers – who must learn new methods of farming and land management, construction workers – who must adapt to more sustainable building materials, and machines – who must train to operate new machinery.
Finally, the outer circle represents the not directly green group occupations that are not highly variable but are expected to increase in demand. These include bus drivers, railroad conductors, electricians, forest conservation workers, health and safety specialists, and wildlife biologists.
Embrace change to reap sustainable growth opportunities
Many of the work families described make up a small fraction of employment in developing country cities, which are often informal and based on survival. However, this new literature using job-level analysis highlights the importance of programs aimed at improving the skills and development of the workforce. As governments increase their commitments to maintain sustainable growth paths, policy makers must ensure equal access to new labor market opportunities to be created. This requires an assessment of the gap between the current skill sets of different categories of workers to those required in the jobs of the future. Understanding this ‘ease of transition’ is particularly important for low-skilled workers who are likely to be displaced by increasingly stringent environmental regulations.
Developing countries are undergoing continuous structural change, with old patterns of economic growth doing a poor job of explaining the paths of growth. progress now. This is especially true when it comes to job growth. Economic change has been exacerbated by climate change #, which has already affected the pace of worker relocation across and within urban labor markets. A successful economic strategy towards sustainable urbanization must be forward-looking and flexible enough to embrace change, identify new opportunities to be seized and challenges to be overcome.
Future work at the IGC will seek to unpack some of these opportunities and challenges. In particular, it will seek to contextualize the green jobs agenda in developing countries’ cities, discuss some of the trade-offs and policy recommendations aimed at providing decent work for the poor while balancing the urgent which are systemic needs in a changing climate.
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Note: The post provides the views of its authors, not the position USAPP– American Politics and Policy, neither the London School of Economics nor the IMF, its executive board, or its management.
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About the author
Juliana Oliveira-Cunha – LSE International Growth Centre
Juliana Oliveira-Cunha works as Policy Economist for the Cities that Work initiative at LSE’s International Growth Center (IGC). The initiative aims to bridge the gap between economic research and policy making in developing countries by translating solid evidence into clear urban policy guidance. Topics include firms and jobs in cities, housing and infrastructure, urban land use, municipal finance and urban management, and climate change.