Green jobs can help cope with financial meltdown

Green jobs can help cope with financial meltdown

Joseph Vackayil
Posted: 2008-11-24 00:55:48+05:30 IST
Updated: Nov 24, 2008 at 0055 hrs IST

In these days of financial meltdown, green jobs, as they are labelled, ensure both job security and energy security. They are the portals to the new nature-dependent, climate-sustaining and pro-nature economic order. The fossil fuel, carbon emission and pollution-driven energy economy will have to give way to new way of power generation, consumption and maintenance. Billions of dollars are being invested on agro-forestry, fuel-feedstock cultivation, biofuels, organic agriculture, wind power generation, solar photovoltaic cell manufacturing, installation and maintenance, green buildings, recycling of metals etc. In this process millions of men and women will find employment and advancement in sustainable way of living.

The Worldwatch Institute and Greenpeace have said that the pursuit of green jobs will be a key economic driver of the 21st century.

The current employment in renewables and supplier industries are estimated at about 2.3 million worldwide. The wind power industry employs some 3,00,000 people, the solar photovoltaics (PV) sector an estimated 1,70,000, and the solar thermal industry more than 6,00,000. More than one million jobs are found in the biofuels industry.

Climate-proofing the global economy will involve large-scale investments in new technologies, equipment, buildings and infrastructure, which will provide a major stimulus for much-needed new employment and an opportunity for retaining and transforming existing jobs.

“The potential for green jobs is immense. But much of it will not materialise without massive and sustained investment in the public and private sectors. Governments need to establish a firm framework for greening all aspects of the economy, with the help of targets and mandates, business incentives and reformed tax and subsidy policies. It will also be critical to develop innovative forms of technology transfer to spread green methods around the world at the scale and speed required to avoid full-fledged climate change. Cooperative technology development and technology-sharing programmes could help expedite the process of replicating best practices,” says Michael Renner, researcher with Worldwatch Institute and author of Working for People and the Environment.

In India, wind power equipment manufacturing capacity and installation of windmills, both by Indian and foreign companies are slated for a quantum jump, offering employment in cities and remote villages for lakhs of people. More than a dozen companies, including Reliance, Videocon, Moser Baer and Emco Energy have announced setting up of facilities for producing solar power films and panels. Green building are also getting popular.

The Centre for Jatropha Promotion (CJP) is set to implement its New Biodiesel Tree Plantation. (NBTP) Project, which aims to plant 5 trillion Jatropha trees in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The target is to produce 10 million tonne of Jatropha-biodiesel a year, and to initiate a sustainable biofuel industry in those states. The CJP is dedicated to the development of alternative fuels from non-food oilseed bearing trees. The centre aims to enhance ecologically sensitive, pro-poor investments in sustainable non-food biodiesel feedstocks in the developing world.

Construction jobs can be greened by ensuring that new buildings meet high performance standards. And retrofitting existing buildings to make them more energy-efficient has big job potential for construction workers, architects, energy auditors, engineers and others.

It is estimated that the auto-sector can create over 8 million jobs worldwide in the green auto manufacturing. Currently, only 2.5 lakh are employed in this sector.

“Modern rail and urban transit systems offer a greener alternative, but they need fresh commitment and investments to reverse the job erosion of recent decades. In a growing numbers of cities, good jobs are being generated by the emergence of bus rapid transit systems. There are also substantial green employment opportunities in retrofitting old diesel buses to reduce air pollutants and in replacing old equipment with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) or hybrid-electric buses. In New Delhi, the introduction of 6,100 CNG buses by 2009 is expected to create 18,000 new jobs,” adds the World Watch Institute report.

The steel, aluminum, cement and paper industries are highly energy-intensive and polluting. But increasing scrap use, greater energy efficiency and reliance on alternative energy sources may at least render them a pale shade of green. Worldwide, more than 40% of steel output and one-quarter of aluminum production is based on recycled scrap, possibly employing more than a quarter million people.

Agriculture and forestry often still account for the bulk of employment and livelihoods in many developing countries. Small farms are more labour- and knowledge-intensive than agro-industrial farms. They even use fewer energy and chemical inputs. Organic farming is still limited. But because it is more labour-intensive than industrialised agriculture, it can be a source of growing green employment all over the world.

There is additional job potential in efforts to cope with climate change. Building flood barriers, terracing land and rehabilitating wetlands is labour-intensive work.

“Green jobs need to be decent jobs—offering good wages and income security, safe working conditions, dignity at work and adequate workers’ rights. Sadly, this is not always the case today. Recycling work is sometimes precarious, involving serious occupational health hazards and often generating less than living wages and incomes. Growing crops at biofuels plantations in countries like Brazil, Colombia, Malaysia and Indonesia often involves excessive workloads, poor pay, exposure to pesticides and oppression of workers. These cautionary aspects highlight the need for sustainable employment to be good not only for the environment but also for the people holding the jobs. Still, an economy that reconciles human aspirations with the planet’s limits is eminently possible,” says the World Watch Institute report.