often miss the target in terms of driving green career development and the number of truly ‘green’ jobs.
1.5 The Global Green Jobs Sector
The environment is a growing sector for employment globally, and there is also a growing public awareness of green issues, on a global scale. The diversity of green jobs has accelerated, with new sectors of employment being stimulated by technological advances (often called ‘Green Tech’).
Green jobs span a wide array of occupational profiles, skills and educational background and, while some constitute entirely new types of jobs, the majority are modified versions of traditional professions and occupations. There is clear evidence of the viability and potential for green jobs across the entire workforce, including manual labourers, skilled workers, craftsmen, highly qualified technicians, engineers and managers.
Creating and Stimulating Global Green Jobs Growth
There has been considerable inertia and a global resistance to change in terms of developing global green jobs. The UN has been pivotal in terms of highlighting this issue and stimulating funding for international programmes to encourage green jobs growth.
There are significant barriers to growth in green employment programmes. Some areas have poor infrastructure, limited policy measures and little political will to actively develop green sectors. Climate change is having a direct impact on jobs and livelihoods; some sectors, which are seen as being energy inefficient and damaging environmentally, have major employment, so this is a challenge that is yet to be faced. There needs to be a global transition that garners support from all sectors and governments.
The UNEP report from 2008, ‘Green Jobs: Towards decent work in a sustainable, low carbon world’ noted:
This report shows for the first time at global level that green jobs are being generated in some sectors and economies. This is in large part as a result of climate change and the need to meet emission reduction targets under the UN climate convention.
This has led to changing patterns of investment flows into areas from renewable energy generation up to energy efficiency projects at the household and industrial level. The bulk of documented growth in Green Jobs has so far occurred mostly in developed countries, and some rapidly developing countries like Brazil and China.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data from 2009 did not attempt to track how many green jobs were new and had been created by newer ‘green jobs’ programmes, but the scheme to measure green jobs was shelved in 2013 due to budget cuts. It did report that 2.3 million jobs were in the private sector, while 860 000 were public jobs (US BLS 2013).
Reuters highlighted in 2016: ‘China expects the output value of its energy saving and environmental protection industry to rise from 4.5 trillion yuan ($653 billion) last year to more than 10 trillion by 2020, lifting its share of gross domestic product from 2.1 percent to 3 percent… the industry currently employs more than 30 million people… China is hoping that big outlays in the environmental sector will not only reverse some of the damage done by more than three decades of breakneck economic growth, but will also help diversify the country’s heavy industrial economy.’
In China, as well as in other countries, there is an impetus for growth in global green jobs, through managing issues like climate change and poor air quality, transitioning heavy industries and also developing new opportunities for global trade.
The South China Morning Post reported (2018) that ‘China is looking to set tougher goals in a new three‐year “green” plan to improve air quality and tighten regulations’ and this has not only restricted certain industries but has also stimulated investment in environmental technologies.
Mark Muro, from the Brookings Institution report (2012), reported that:
The ‘green’ or ‘clean’ economy exists; that we can define it; that in fact we can count its jobs and measure it and track its progress. Given that, it is soon going to be time for election‐year combatants to leave aside both flat‐earth denials and exaggerated claims and get down to realistic dialogue about how to foster what turns out to be a modest‐sized, manufacturing‐oriented, unavoidable piece of America’s next economy.
His team’s study reported that most green jobs in the United States are in already‐mature segments, like manufacturing or public services, including wastewater and mass transit. A smaller proportion includes newer green energy ventures such as solar, wind and smart grids – but in recent years, these sectors have been adding jobs at rates that far outstrip national averages.
The 2008 report ‘Working Towards Sustainable Development’, by the Green Jobs Initiative (United Nations Environment Programme (2008), the International Labor Organization, and the International Trade Union Confederation), noted:
Most studies indicate gains in the order of 0.5–2 per cent, which would translate into 15–60 million additional jobs globally. More ambitious green growth strategies could result in even stronger net gains in employment by triggering a wave of new investment into the real economy, as suggested by studies of Australia and Germany’…A significant potential also exists in emerging and developing countries. For example, targeted international investment of US$30 billion per year into reduced deforestation and degradation of forests (REDD+) could sustain up to 8 million additional full‐time workers in developing countries.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) (2018) has formed a Green Jobs Global Team, and in their 2018 report ‘Greening with Jobs – World Employment and Social Outlook 2018’, they state:
18 million jobs can be created by achieving sustainability in the energy sector. Limiting global warming to 2°C by the end of the century will create, by 2030, jobs in construction, electrical machinery manufacturing, copper mining, renewable energy production and biomass crop cultivation. But there will be fewer jobs in petroleum extraction and refinery, coal mining and production of electricity from coal meriting policies to protect these workers to make sure the transition is just for all.
Santander (n.d.), the multinational financial services company, outlined in its release ‘The future of employment is green’:
If only a couple of decades ago, in the early years of the new century, we would have asked someone about what green employment means, it is most likely that the response obtained would not have implied much more than a park ranger or something similar. And it would not be a bad option, but it would remain insufficient.
That same respondent would have thought we were crazy if, predicting the future, we would have advanced to the following figures: 400,000 new jobs in Europe, more than 50,000 only in Spain and almost 18 million around the world. That is the estimate made by the European Commission in the case that all the legislation enforced about waste would be applied in a real way.
Today, green employment is becoming, with every passing second, a magnificent job opportunity. So, roughly speaking, we could define it as that which has as an absolute objective so lofty as protecting the planet. And how can such a laudable goal be achieved? Basically, by reducing the impact that human action itself, especially through large companies, provokes in the natural environment.
Within this sector, the most demanded areas are those related to energy efficiency, waste management, pollution prevention and many others included in what we know as Corporate Social Responsibility of companies. Ecological agriculture, environmental communication, sustainable tourism and eco‐design are some of the most innovative fields that green employment already places in a powerful place
