9/27/2011 - Accessing
Green Jobs will be critical for achieving
sustainable development goals - But Lack
of Green Job Initiatives and Skill Shortages
May Constrain Employment
Growth and the Transition to Sustainable
Development
Tunza-Children and Youth
on the Road to Rio+20
Bandung (Indonesia)
/ Nairobi, 27 September 2011 - Urgently
bridging the skills gap among young people
through improved education and training
will be one of the keys towards delivering
a global Green Economy.
The claim was made today
at the opening of the Tunza International
Conference for Children and Youth taking
place in Bandung, Indonesia, with over 1,400
young participants.
Nearly 40 percent of
the world's unemployed - over 80 million
people—are between the ages of 15 and 24.
According to the latest estimates, more
than 36 million of them live in Asia and
the Pacific.
Accessing "Green
Jobs"—that are good for the environment
and good for business - will be critical
for achieving sustainable development goals
ranging from eradicating poverty to accelerated
growth in sectors such as sustainable agriculture
to renewable energies, which are also part
of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Indonesia could become
a model on how to achieve broad sustainability
goals that include 'green jobs' for young
people as a result of a new initiative with
the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The initiative, which
is getting underway, has been inspired by
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the President
of Indonesia, during his address to the
100th session of the International Labour
Conference in Geneva in June 2011.
"In Indonesia,
we intend to advance a national green skills
development strategy. We plan to pursue
a decentralized youth apprenticeship programme
for green jobs and take measures to foster
entrepreneurship and self employment in
the green sector," he said.
The initiative builds
on new research by UNEP and the ILO that
indicates that while jobs in high-emission
'brown' industries, or in currently unsustainable
sectors such as many of the world's fisheries,
will be redefined and some of them lost
in the transition to a Green Economy, millions
of new 'green' jobs will be catalyzed to
support sustainable agriculture, construction,
energy, forestry, tourism, transportation
and waste management and recycling sectors.
However, the educational
and vocational training that will prepare
youth for these jobs and bring the skills
needed to grow sustainable economic sectors
is currently inadequate, new research by
the ILO shows.
"From Asia to the
Middle East and Europe, and from North America
to Latin America and the small island developing
states, the issue of youth employment is
emerging as a challenge to the global economy
and to social stability in countries and
communities. Some governments are now factoring
youth into green employment and green development
strategies and launching the vital green
entrepreneurial initiative as well as education
and skills initiatives to support this,"
said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General
and UNEP Executive Director.
"The Rio+20 meeting
in June next year represents a central opportunity
to adopt far more wide-ranging policies
and smart instruments to scale-up and accelerate
such transitions. The Bandung Declaration
at this week's conference offers a moment
and a vehicle for the children and youth
to send a clear and unequivocal message
to world leaders meeting 20 years after
the Rio Earth Summit that this is what they
want and the future they deserve,"
he added.
There are already a
growing number of new or redefined jobs
in the transition to the Green Economy.
While some need engineering and technical
skills in new green technologies like 'hybrid'
car engines, solar panels, or LED lighting,
others simply require retraining in more
sustainable industries such as organic farming,
biomass or green construction.
According to the Green
Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable,
Low-Carbon World report produced in 2008
by UNEP, the ILO, the International Trade
Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International
Organization of Employers (IOE) by 2030
up to 12 million people could be employed
globally in biofuels-related agriculture
and industry, 2.1 million in wind energy
and up to 6.3 million in solar.
The report is the first
comprehensive and authoritative overview
which addresses the complexity and policy
relevance of global environmental challenges
and employment.
Growing environmental
awareness is also helping channel interest
in a greater variety of 'green jobs'. For
example, more people are employed worldwide
in renewable energy than in the fossil fuel
industry.
The automotive sector
has also begun to attract workers in eco-friendly
vehicles, including hybrid, electric and
hydrogen-powered ones and the construction
industry is beginning to focus on green
sustainable buildings which consume less
energy.
There are a number of
reasons for the shortage in skills. The
explosive growth in new green sectors, such
as energy-efficient buildings, electric
cars, waste management, renewable energy,
have outpaced an increase in teachers and
trainers, particularly in developing countries.
H.E. Professor Gusti
Muhammad Hatta, State Minister for the Environment
in Indonesia said, "Green jobs in emerging
economies will benefit a broad cross-section
of the population, especially young people.
That is why it is essential to develop new
skills and capacities for the future. We
look forward to the Bandung Declaration
to bring these ideas to the forefront of
the global agenda for Rio+20."
Some countries and educational
institutions have already begun to focus
on training programmes for building strategic
skills for the transition to a Green Economy
with more 'green jobs'.
In Bangladesh, the Grameen
Shakti has trained over 1,000 women and
youth to qualify as certified solar technicians.
In Brazil the National Biodiesel Programme
trains rural technicians to assist agricultural
producers to grow bioenergy crops.
In Indonesia, where 40 percent of the labour
force is working in the agricultural sector,
the country's Ministry of Agriculture in
2002 launched the Climate Field Schools
to train farmers in planting strategies
that address climate change.
The University of Miskolc
in Indonesia now offers courses in Mechanical
Engineering with a major in energy conversion.
India's National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (NREGA) is
a guaranteed wage employment programme that
enhances livelihoods in rural areas. Water
conservation accounts for about half of
the total projects supported under NREGA,
with 850,000 water conservation works funded
and completed from 2006 to 2008. In the
District of Jalaun (Uttar Pradesh), NREGA
provides training and jobs for villagers
to develop solutions to their heavily silted
water harvesting infrastructure, alleviating
their water shortages.
In South Africa there
is the Expanded Public Works Programme of
'Working for Water' which provides training
for disadvantaged communities to control
and remove invasive alien plants which pose
a threat to water security in the country.
Faced with a severe
economic downturn in the 1980s and 11000s,
the regional government of Navarre, Spain,
set up a public training centre for renewable
energies in an effort to expand the renewable
energy sector. Today, some two thirds of
the region's electricity production is derived
from renewable sources and employment in
renewable energies has jumped 183% from
2002-2006 giving Navarre the second lowest
unemployment rate in Spain.
In Thailand, the Ministry
of Agriculture is providing training for
agriculturalists on the use of bio-fertilizers
to replace chemical fertilizers that emit
greenhouse gases. Thailand's Ministry of
Energy is also training technicians in energy
management and technology and the Ministry
of Tourism and Sports is organizing training
courses in eco-tourism.
With a large agricultural
population that does not depend on fertilizers,
Uganda has harnessed a real opportunity
to pursue organic farming as an important
revenue for farmers. The National Organic
Agricultural Movement of Uganda (NOGAMU)
now promotes organic agriculture throughout
the country and the export of certified
organic products around the world. And the
policy has paid off. Certified organic exports
jumped from US$3.7 million in 2003 to US$22
million four years later.
Participants at the
TUNZA conference, which takes place from
27 September to 1 October 2011, are putting
their final requests and appeals to world
leaders via a Bandung Declaration that will
be delivered at the upcoming Conference
on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012.
Notes to Editors:
About the conference
The Tunza International
Children and Youth Conference on the Environment
is being hosted by UNEP with the support
of the several UN entities including ILO,
UNICEF, UNFPA, FAO, WMO, UNESCO and UN/DESA,
as well as international youth organizations
like the World Organization of the Scout
Movement and the World Association of Girl
Guides and Girl Scouts, and private sector
partners, such as the Bayer corporation.
About the participants
The children and youth
taking part in the conference were selected
from 3,000 applicants on the basis of their
environmental projects and how active they
are on green issues. Participants are divided
into two groups: children (10-14 years old)
and youth (15-24 years old).
About Tunza
The Tunza Youth Strategy,
adopted in 2003 by UNEP's Governing Council,
is a long-term strategy to engage young
people in environmental activities and in
the work of UNEP. The word 'Tunza' means
'to treat with care or affection' in Kiswahili.
The Tunza initiative aims to develop activities
in the areas of environmental awareness
and information exchange on the environment
for children and youth. For more information,
please visit www.unep.org/Tunza/
About Rio+20
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable
Development will be held in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 4-6, 2012.
For more information, please visit www.uncsd2012.org/
About the UNEP Green Economy Report, please
visit http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/
