Youth Employment Is Key For The Just Transition To A Green Economy
22nd March 2024
The just transition to a green economy, one that doesn't leave workers behind, is also a matter of intra- and intergenerational equity. Transformation requires a resilient workforce, with social protection, employment and skills. Sharan Burrow and Jodi-Ann Wang write that there must be inclusive and secure pipelines between education and employment in clean industries, as well as schemes that target young people who are at risk of economic insecurity.
The realisation of a truly "just" transition is deeply dependent on our collective endeavours to transform the systemic forces that have seeded environmental breakdown in the first instance. We must transition out of fossil-fuel based energy and into renewables. That is the foundation for electrifying other sectors, as is the preservation and restoration of ecosystems central to our health, wellbeing, and social equity. The scale and speed of the changes required to stabilise the planet necessitates that the transition takes place across all sectors.
All systemic changes required of a just transition are matters of intragenerational and intergenerational equity, assuring justice among human beings that are alive today and taking care not to "diminish opportunities for a good and decent life for succeeding generations." These goals imply, among other things, a need to address our insatiable over-consumption patterns and monopolistic food systems that deepen global inequity, undoing unfair international trade rules and creating decent and dignified jobs for all.
Turning the just transition from principles to practice for current and future generations requires practical, costed, actionable pathways for sectoral transformation across the economy. The development of people-centred just transition pathways should sit at the heart of the Just Transition Work Programme, which was put into operation at COP28. Importantly, these pathways must be based on meaningful and effective social dialogues and participatory decision-making processes for affected stakeholders.
The UN Climate Change Conference last year in Dubai (COP28) witnessed progress, with two examples of such pathways being clarified. In the energy system, the inevitable transition out of fossil fuels was underpinned by the twin goals of tripling renewable energy output and doubling energy efficiency by 2030. In the food system, 134 nations signed the declaration recognising the need to transform global food systems, but clear targets remain out of sight.
The transformational element of the just transition is indeed all-encompassing, and in it lies the need to construct a resilient workforce of the future. The imperative for green industrialisation and decent jobs is well established, and the opportunities to strengthen social protection, employment, and skills exist in every sectoral transformation. In fact, up to 100 million jobs in the green economy could be created by 2030, according to the International Labour Organisation.
What good looks like
A key plank of policies linked to system transformation include decent, clean energy and related supply chain jobs for future generations. These policies require inclusive and secure pipelines between education and employment in clean industries, as well as schemes that target young people who are at risk of economic insecurity or are not in education, employment or training (NEET). They also need to redress the existing racial, ethnic and gender disparities in certain fields. For instance, the existing barriers around cost, access to opportunities and education attainment levels have resulted in the environmental sector being the second least diverse in the UK.
Countries are recognising the need to address the generational employment impact of the transition, particularly when labour markets are already tight and existing government policies are insufficient to fill the emerging skills gaps. One example is Spain, where 17 per cent of the population are between 18 and 24 years old and are not in education, employment or training. Spain recognises in its just transition strategy that youth unemployment is one of the "most pressing challenges" of the country.
Similarly, in the UK, 794,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 24 are not in education, employment or training, which, if sustained for long periods, can pose risks of poor physical and mental health, and low pay in the long term.
Some countries are capturing the opportunities of the transition to boost their environmental sector, strengthen skills development and address existing economic inequalities. El Savador's National Energy Policy explicitly calls on academia, the private sector and the State to create productive, analytical and scientific capacities among youth to further talent development. Zimbabwe's National Renewable Energy Policy also recommends that at least 40 per cent of the workforce employed in the running of renewable energy plants should be from the local communities, which is in line with its National Youth Policy.
On the international stage, the Green Jobs for Youth Pact of 2023 aims to develop one million new green jobs, transform one million existing roles into green ones and support 10,000 young green entrepreneurs by 2030.
At the end of the day, we still need a liveable planet to host a green labour force. We are all too familiar with the union slogan that "there are no jobs on a dead planet." Resetting the economy in a way that creates and protects jobs begins with concerted efforts to scale mitigation and adaptation measures to secure our collective right to a clean and healthy environment. We must defend such right like our lives depend on it, like our children and their children's lives depend on it.
In all of this, businesses play a key role. In thinking about building a resilient, sustainable economy for the future, businesses' "social license to operate" not only depends on their ability to minimise risks in the transition. Rather, it fundamentally requires organisations to go beyond risk mitigation, and towards maximising the opportunities that it can create for workers and communities along the value chain. This is well-aligned with the imperative for social transformation. Such a place-based approach can co-deliver sustainable development endeavours, as 90 per cent of the world's 1.8 billion young people today reside in developing countries.
The just transition is not free. Finance must underpin the implementation of just transition pathways, which ultimately require businesses to price in the relevant processes and agreed outcomes into the financing of projects: community benefit schemes, stakeholder consultation processes, target setting and reporting responsibilities, grievance redress mechanisms, etc. For all of this to be achievable, the trust of workers and communities need to be secured. The Just Transition Finance Lab creates such a platform to convene businesses, financial institutions, and stakeholders to unlock existing bottlenecks and strengthen innovative solutions that centre the justice agenda in business and financial ecosystems.
Including young people in this intergenerational struggle to create a sustainable future is critical to a just transition. As we scale up planning and implementation, we must continue to question the type of future we seek to bequeath to future generations.
Authors
Sharan Burrow
Sharan Burrow was the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) from 2010 to 2022 and president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) from 2000 to 2010.
Jodi-Ann Wang
Jodi-Ann Wang is a policy analyst working at the intersection of sustainable finance policy and climate justice, focusing on just transition planning and the global financial architecture.
Read this article from the LSE blog with links to more information HERE
