With new and emerging technologies, shifts in employment and changes in the workforce are occurring across the world. Employment shifts driven by economic transformation occur at three different levels: (i) across sectors (or industries); (ii) across enterprises within the same or similar sector (industry); and (iii) within enterprises. The speed and the amplitude of job creation and loss across these three levels determine the effects on the number of jobs as well as income.
One of the key challenges facing policymakers in transforming their economies is creating decent and meaningful employment. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), over 600 million new jobs would be needed in the next 10 years. This paper highlights employment opportunities and key challenges in a transition to a green economy and suggests what policy measures need to be put in place to ensure that newly created jobs can become decent jobs.
UNEP, in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), organized a Technical Workshop on Fiscal Policies Towards and Inclusive Green Economy in October 2012 in Geneva. The workshop brought together representatives from both finance and environment ministries to share and discuss their experiences and good practices for driving a green economy through fiscal policy reforms. This paper is one of the follow-ups of this joint endeavour.
- The role of environmental taxes in a green economy transition
- Reforming energy subsidies
- Implications of fiscal reforms and lessons learned
Are poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability conflicting objectives? Or do the two goals support each other? Both are traditional domains of policy-makers aiming to promote green growth and pro-poor or inclusive growth. But in recent years, market based approaches that harness the capabilities of private-sector players have gained credibility and attracted increasing attention. In the process, traditional roles have been blurred. Today, solutions to tackle poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability are being implemented by a wide array of actors.
Strategies to alleviate poverty and achieve environmental sustainability are often highly interlinked and definitions by both policy and business actors of one strategy will often cross-reference the other. UNESCAP’s definition of green growth, for example, refers to ‘socially inclusive development,’ while the Millennium Development Goals include ‘Ensure Environmental Sustainability’ as one of their eight goals. On the business level, definitions of inclusive business strategies state that their objective is to include the poor as ‘participants in low-carbon and climate-resilient growth.’
A green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication (hereafter green economy) requires major structural and technological changes in key sectors such as infrastructure, industry, agriculture and transportation. Near-term investments in all these sectors must be financed for long-term sustainable development. This Issues Brief provides a picture of current and required financial flows for the transition with a focus on identifying major gaps in finance. The Brief outlines proposals for finance including those from the Rio + 20 Compilation text and where possible attempts to convey their feasibility and potential. It suggests that the transition will require the identification of new sources, the streamlining of existing channels and the effective design and utilisation of instruments to leverage private investment.
There are many questionable assumptions in the discussion of economic growth. One of them is the idea that governments are able to achieve sustained high growth. Another one is the belief that the solution to pressing financial and social problems centres on higher growth. It is also questionable, however, to say that giving up on economic growth as a paradigm is the necessary condition to tackle the environmental crisis. In actuality, solving such problems is about radical growth in environmental and resource-saving technologies. It is also about radical ‘‘de-growth’’ in products and processes that undermine long-term living and production conditions. This paper describes some best practice cases of ‘‘green growth’’ and the conceptual generalisations given by the OECD and other established institutions in Europe and Asia. It traces the transformation of the concept of ‘‘green growth’’ and evaluates the strategy that accompanies it.