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The transition to a green economy will inevitably cause job losses in certain sectors as carbon- and resource-intensive industries are scaled-down, but they will be more than offset by new job opportunities.
“Greening with jobs” (1) focuses on changes in the society and changes in jobs the next ten-fifteen years.
A transition to agricultural sustainability and a circular economy will result in more and often better jobs.
A transformation will affect the entire economy if agriculture embraces sustainability, with the effects depending on the sustainability path adopted. For some regions, particularly in developed countries, a transition may involve embracing organic agriculture. For others, particularly in developing countries, a decent work-friendly and food security-friendly sustainability path may mean adopting conservation agriculture. In either case, complementary policies will be needed to ensure that these changes enhance decent work in the agriculture sector and that any employment losses can be used as an opportunity to guide the structural transformation in developing countries.
The adoption of more sustainable agricultural policies can create wage employment in medium and large organic farms, and allow smallholders to diversify their sources of income through a transition to conservation agriculture. With complementary policies to support workers, adopting conservation agriculture can help sustain a structural transformation in developing countries. In parallel, embracing a circular economy that emphasizes the reuse, recycling, remanufacture and repair of goods will create around 6 million new employment opportunities across the world as such actions replace the traditional model of “extract, make, use and dispose”.
References:
(1) Greening with jobs, WORLD EMPLOYMENT SOCIAL OUTLOOK, 2018 International Labour Organization 2018
Lucubrate Magazine September 2019
Lucubrate Magazine highlights some of the main suggestions from the document “Greening with jobs”, World Employment Social Outlook 2018.
(This is the second article in Lucubrate Magazine in the series about future jobs. Find the other articles in the series here)
The picture on the top of the article showes women Tea Pickers in Sri Lanka, by Rawpixel.com
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