Create Green Jobs For Climate Action

Earth is warming due to various human activities that cause pollution to the environment. It has led to alteration in climatic events such as drought, torrential rain, heat, coldwave, etc. This is known as climate change. This alteration has brought about so many changes in weather patterns and human livelihoods. This has attracted the attention of several national and international actors.

Over the years, globally, developmental activities, such as industrialisation, have been carried out without considering the environment. As development is becoming environmentally costly, it has become unsustainable. This is reflected in climate change. Nations and individuals have initiated various interventions to protect environment, thereby overcoming or reducing the negative impacts of climate change. Green growth and development has been promoted across the globe. 

It has been argued that green jobs are both a mechanism to achieve sustainable development and an outcome of policies to pursue sustainability. They are mutually reinforcing. They can provide the double dividend of more employment and a better environment. This is what we want as a developing country.

Climate resilience 

Green jobs have several promising factors to reduce climate change. It has been argued that green jobs help reduce negative environmental impacts by reducing energy and greenhouse gas emissions with the use of using renewable energy; minimising energy, waste and pollution to protect and restore ecosystems and supporting activities that assist resilience and adaptation to climate change. It is all about rebalancing the earth. These are very significant desired outcomes out of creating green jobs.

This is how green jobs ensure just transition, which is to move towards a low carbon future by reducing carbon emission from various development activities. The impacts of climate change threaten the unique and expansive biodiversity and ecosystems, both of which contribute significantly to economic activities and livelihoods. The flooding immediately after the last Dashain reminds us of the impact of climate change in Nepal. That caused losses of lives and property worth trillions of rupees. 

Nepal’s ongoing 15th plan’s vision is to create a climate-resilient society. Rapid climate change has the potential to undermine our efforts to realise this vision as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. One way to reduce the negative impact of climate change is to create more and more green jobs across the country in collaboration with the local and international partners. The 15th plan acknowledges the problem of not mainstreaming the climate change issue in all development sectors and inadequate institutional, financial, technological and knowledge capacity to tackle the negative impacts of climate change. 

Despite the implementation of Climate Change Policy, 2076; National Adaptation Programme, 2076 and Local Adaptation Plan, 2078, localisation and mainstreaming of climate change across all sectors is still patchy. As a consequence, creating green jobs may sound strange, but this could contribute immensely in this area. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has identified that by 2030, an additional 14.2 million (net) green jobs could be generated in the Asia-Pacific Region. However, they will not necessarily occur automatically or in the volume required unless just transition planning takes place. 

Developing strategies of green jobs for protecting our mountains could be a concrete intervention. Local governments are required to mainstream this agenda in their planning process. They can create employment in tree plantation and protection in their public lands within their territories. These trees should also be commercially beneficial such as orange, apple, lemon or timber-based. Plantation on the sides of the newly-constructed local roads also has the potential to reduce carbon in the environment.

With the finding of the above stated green job creation potential in the region, the ILO has stated its readiness to assist the national governments, such as Nepal, by helping to guide and build capacity to develop just transition plans. The 15th plan also aims to localise and mainstream the climate change agenda, and adopt green and clean development. To realise this, ILO’s technical support needs to be accepted and utilised. Two countries are acting as pilot cases and have applied the just transition guidelines, through ILO’s technical support, into their policy responses - the Philippines and Uruguay. Nepal should also join this club and contribute to global climate action.

Technical support

Nepal can benefit from these immediate actions to support a just transition and create green jobs through ILO’s technical support: data collection and analysis of existing and potential green jobs situation, mapping supporting policy and industry needs for green job creation, institutional capacity building for just transition planning, and linking employment and labour markets to climate goals and commitments to international agreements. Such actions are perfectly consistent with the climate change mandate as stated in Nepal’s constitution, the 15th plan, SDGs and other sectoral policies. ILO’s contribution in this area will also materialise the need for multi-actors’ involvement in the most pressing issue of climate change.

(Dr. Bhusal works at the National Planning Commission).