The sectors of the built environment are the main sources of emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. They are key contributors to climate change and to the depletion of natural resources. It is essential to make the activities related to the production and use of the built environment an integral part of the solution to these environmental problems. At the same time, efficiency in the built environment encourages the development of new professional skills and can generate employment opportunities.
This Manual provides guidance to ILO units and field offices which wish to engage in studies and projects related to greening sectors of the built environment. First, it provides relevant background data to inform the preparation of studies and projects. Second, it provides a step-by-step guide to the development of such initiatives. The sectors examined include infrastructure & construction, water, energy and sanitation systems, waste management and recycling, urban agriculture. Sector specific analyses are provided, and the connections between sectors (the built environment system) are also explored.
Climate change is now widely acknowledged as one of the great – if not the greatest – challenges facing humanity in the coming decades. Through its impact on average temperature, precipitations and sea levels, it will endanger the livelihood of hundreds of millions and impose increasing costs on our societies if nothing is done.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the only way to get the sort of commitments needed to effectively deal with the challenge is to create a global consensus that involves all stakeholders. Such a consensus will only arise if there is a seemingly “just” sharing of the burden in this battle to keep the planet hospitable to human beings.
This is particularly true when it comes to employment. It goes without saying that climate change and policies to mitigate it will in time have an enormous impact on industries, jobs and workers. Yet, despite the rhetoric about the elusive “social dimension” of sustainable development, until very recently climate change negotiations showed only limited concern about the fate of workers, and far greater efforts were directed at measuring the environmental rather than the social impacts of climate change.
A number of studies for industrialised countries assess how a transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy might affect employment. These typically find overall job gains compared to “business-as-usual” scenarios. The more detailed of these studies address not just changes in the total number of jobs, but also underlying job movements as well as the quality of jobs. Such knowledge is vital to informing policies that enable a just transition to a green economy, yet there are few comparable studies for developing countries. A key bottleneck is the scarcity of information, particularly employment and production data on green jobs as well as on linkages with the rest of the economy. As part of the ILO’s Global Green Jobs Programme, this guide provides practical solutions tailored to the considerations of developing countries that can help fill these information gaps. The guide adopts a menu approach, providing policy-makers with a range of options that take into account time and resource constraints as well as policy priorities.
The goal of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) Ecological and Economic Foundations is to provide the conceptual foundation to link economics and ecology, to highlight the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services and to show their importance for human well-being. This volume of the overal TEEB series tackles the challenges of valuing ecosystem services, as well as issues related to economic discounting. It aims to quantify the costs of inaction and examine the macroeconomic dimension of ecosystem services loss. This information will focus on improving our understanding of the economic costs of biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation.
Examples include water and air quality regulation, nutrient cycling and decomposition, plant pollination and flood control, all of which are dependent on biodiversity. They are predominantly public goods with limited or no markets and do not command any price in the conventional economic system, so their loss is often not detected and continues unaddressed and unabated. This in turn not only impacts human well-being, but also seriously undermines the sustainability of the economic system.
The Econmics of Ecosystems and Biodiviersity (TEEB) in National and International Policy Making demonstrates the value of ecosystems and biodiversity to the economy, society and individuals. It underlines the need and ways to transform our approach to natural capital, and demonstrates how we can practically take into account the value of ecosystems and biodiversity in policy actions – at both national and international levels – to promote the protection of our environment and contribute to a sustainable economy and the well-being of societies.
TEEB in national and international policy making highlights the need for new public policy to reflect the appreciation that public goods and social benefits are often overlooked and that we need a transition to decision making which integrates the many values of nature across policy sectors. The book explores the range of instruments to reward those offering ecosystem benefits such as water provision and climate regulation, and looks at the fiscal and regulatory instruments to reduce the incentives of those degrading natural capital, and at reforming subsidies so they respond to current and future priorities.