What are the green jobs?

What are the green jobs?

The transition to greener societies and economies is an existential issue. International agreements and civil society movements underline the need to move fast and change our production and consumption patterns to protect our planet and at the same time ensure fairer societies. New policies, regulation and financial incentives are set in place around the world to make this happen. The European Green Deal sees the green transition as a new development model towards environmentally sustainable and fairer societies.  But how this transition affects jobs? Let’s have a close look at that.

The first element to bear in mind is that the  green transition implies a deep transformation of practically all economic activities aiming at their adaptation to the adverse effects of climate change; at the mitigation of their impact on climate by reducing of CO2 and other greenhouse gases emissions; at the reduction of pollution; at the protection of natural resources (e.g. water and marine resources) as well as of biodiversity and ecosystems; and, at the shift to a circular economy (Ref EU taxonomy for sustainable activities | European Commission (europa.eu)). The transformation of economic activities concerns both (i) adoption of environmentally friendly production processes and technologies, and (ii) the design and delivery of products and services. This has important job implications both in terms of job content and in terms of job distribution across economic sectors. Some jobs, in particular in carbon intensive and fossil fuel industries are gradually disappearing, but other jobs -the so called “green jobs”- are being created; while yet other jobs are reallocated towards industries and sectors that become greener. The ILO (2019) estimates  that the green transition will have a positive impact on job creation with almost 25 million jobs created and nearly 7 million lost globally by 2030 as an outcome of the transition to low-carbon and resource-efficient economies; out of the latter, 5 million can be reclaimed through labour reallocation ( ILO Global Report: Skills for a greener future: a global view).

But what are these green jobs? What makes a job green? And where these jobs are being created?

According to ILO “Green jobs are decent jobs that contribute to preserve or restore the environment, be they in traditional sectors such as manufacturing and construction, or in new, emerging green sectors such as renewable energy and energy efficiency” (What is a green job ? (ilo.org)). According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) green jobs are defined as "positions in agriculture, manufacturing, R&D, administrative, and service activities aimed at substantially preserving or restoring environmental quality". Different countries (and even companies like Iberdola What are Green Jobs and its impact on the economy - Iberdrola) have their own definitions of green jobs but they all more or less converge to the same understanding: “green” are the jobs that are created for the production of goods and services or with the introduction of technologies and processes that protect, preserve and restore the environment.

Although initially the focus of attention for the creation of green jobs was mainly on the sectors of energy (to support the shift towards renewable energy sources and decrease CO2 emissions), construction (to enhance energy efficiency of buildings) and agriculture (to address desertification, soil contamination and pollution and use water more efficiently as well to respond to an increasing consumer demand for bio products) we see today that all economic sectors are creating green jobs or “green” the content of traditional jobs. The World Economic Forum (WEF) using LinkedIN jobs data reports that the number of green jobs or of jobs that require green skills is increasing in practically all sectors (These are the sectors where green jobs are growing in demand | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)). These include even the financial sector that increasingly directs itself to sustainable finance and apply instruments for assessing and reporting on sustainable investments.

Green jobs can be in new occupations created by the use of new technologies, or delivery of new products and services (e.g. on shore wind farm technician, remote sensing technician, product life cycle manager, bioinformatics scientist, environmental specialist, circular investment specialist, )  or by regulation (e.g. energy auditor, specialist in green accounting or environmental manager). But most of these jobs are being in traditional occupations that are getting enhanced  with new knowledge and skills that promote environmental objectives. For example an architect that needs to have knowledge on energy efficient materials and construction; or an agronomist that has ecological knowledge and can support soil nourishment with organic fertilisers; or a residential building manager who develops knowledge on environmental technologies and environmental management standards and apply them in practice. Some traditional professions, in repair for example, can be considered green jobs – probably without changing at all- being part of the circular economy aiming to extend the lifecycle of products (by reusing, repairing, recycling) and reduce harmful waste for the environment.

An internet research demonstrates a wealth of different occupations that are or are becoming green in all sectors. National classification systems are gradually getting updated. The European Classification of Skills and Occupations (ESCO) is also getting reviewed to encompass these developments. It is all about understanding and bringing transparency on the impact of green transition on jobs but also on how jobs support the green transition.    

Is it now more clear what are the green jobs? Do you think the hype about green jobs is justified or rather exaggerated? Do you have an example to share on how a job becomes green or greener?