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This article looks at how the ILO can strengthen its capacity to address the issue of climate change and assist its constituents with the transition processes in relation to changes in jobs and qualifications. It was published  in a special issue on Green Jobs of the ILO’s magazine “World of Work” (No. 60, August 2007).

This document presents a study entitled “Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World” launched globally by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Organisation of Employers (IOE). The report is the first comprehensive study on the emergence of a green economy and its impact on the world of work. It includes new data that show a changing pattern of employment in which green jobs are being generated in many sectors and economies around the world as a result of measures to tackle climate change and to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

This document presents a statement of ILO Director-General, Juan Somavia. ILO Director-General presents jointly with UNEP Executive Director, Achim Steiner, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Secretary, Guy Ryder, and the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) Vice President, Ronnie Goldberg, the report entitled “Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World” highlighting its main points.

This manual collects adapted training material originally developed for Zambia and Tanzania on waste management, to suit the Zimbabwean context, with a focus on waste recycling as a business idea for community based organisations. This also contributes to solve solid waste management problems at the local level. The adapted training package Start Your Waste Recycling Business comprises four key documents.

This document presents a policy-applied research on skill needs for greener economies conducted by the ILO. The research is based on fifteen country studies worldwide with a primary focus on good practice examples of how national policies for greening economies are complemented by identification of skills needs and efficient skills response strategies. The ILO is partnering with the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) who is conducting six additional country studies in Europe.

This slide presentation introduces a programme to prevent natural disasters in the Gonaïves Region (Haiti). Environmental protection and employment creation are essential elements of this strategy, whose specific objectives are: to contribute to setting up a management plan of the “Quinte Quinte River River” catchment area and its affluents to avoid future natural disasters similar to the “Jeanne hurricane”; to rehabilitate the extremely fragile and weakened environment of Gona Gonaïves by implementing water and soil conservation schemes using labour-based techniques.

This document presents a message from Juan Somavia, Director-General of the ILO, written on the occasion of the World Environment Day. It stresses that tackling climate change and protecting the environment are workplace issues. Meeting the enormous challenge of arresting climate change, the loss of biodiversity and pollution and of supporting sustainable agriculture capable of providing food for all requires major changes in production and consumption patterns.

This document highlights that early global efforts to avert dangerous climate change are already generating new jobs, and could produce millions of new employment opportunities. This is the result of a new study to be launched globally by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Organisation of Employers (IOE).

This document introduces a new landmark study on the impact of an emerging global “green economy” on the world of work. It stresses that efforts to tackle climate change could result in the creation of millions of new “green jobs” in the coming decades.

This slide presentation discusses how ICT can help to shift from a high to a low carbon global economy and promote green and decent work in a sustainable, low-carbon world. High potential exists in specific sectors: energy efficiency: buildings; industry, transport; renewable energy; mobility and mass transportation; recycling, waste management; sustainable agriculture and forestry; environmental services.

In this document ILO Director-General Juan Somavia highlightes the potential for the creation of environmentally friendly green jobs in a panel discussion and press conference at the Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum organized by the United Nations Environment Programme in Monaco.

This policy document discusses evidence and findings presented in the report “Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World”. It focuses on the notion of “green jobs”, a concept that has become something of an emblem of a more sustainable economy and society, to preserve the environment for both present and future generations and to be more equitable and inclusive of all people and all countries. Green jobs hold the promise that humankind will be able to face up to the following two defining challenges of the twenty‑first century: climate change and decent work. 

This publication discusses climate change and its social and labour impacts.The world of work is sensitive to changes in the environment. As climate change sweeps across the globe, governments, workers and employers are facing its incremental effects as well as searching for solutions to offset them. This document focuses on how climate change is affecting workplaces around the world and also looks at the new  employment opportunities created by the global, national and grassroots initiatives promoting sustainable development and green jobs.

This document shows data and information about the development of green jobs. Green Jobs have become an emblem of a more sustainable economy and society, that preserves the environment for present and future generations and is more equitable and inclusive of all people and all countries. The rationale for green growth and clean development has mostly been presented as a win-win situation for the environment and for economic development.

This analytical report presents a project designed to promote green jobs in Burkina Faso. In fact, the ILO’s new “Green Jobs Initiative” aims to develop and create jobs in order to promote a cleaner, more sustainable environment. Though the concept is relatively new, the practice is already growing in some parts of the world. The report from the Burkina Faso experience shows that a new project for removing plastic waste is not only improving the environment, but creating “green jobs” in the process.

This document analyses the employment and labour market implications of climate change by determining the link between economic growth, poverty reduction and sustainable development. Also available in German.

This document analyses how green jobs can be promoted in a socially equitable way. After discussing climate change, it examines the linkage between climatic hazards and decent work. It concludes with propositions and suggestions for the ILO and with guidelines for a possible ILO working program on this issue.

The analytical report has been compiled from an extensive desk review, findings from participation in international conferences and relevant forums, a number of interviews conducted through a focused questionnaire, and five field visits to develop detailed case studies and verify issues raised in project documents with evidence from the field. It is hoped that the findings will help build in-house capacity to promote adaptation and mitigation. The lessons learned will contribute to enhancing integration of climate related issues both at strategic and project levels.

This analytical report discusses about expanding the concept of carbon trading to include compensation for the rural poor for their contributions to soil conservation and avoided deforestation.

This fact sheet covers IFAD’s mission concerning climate change: to enable poor rural people to overcome poverty. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood for most poor rural people, and it is also the human activity most directly affected by climate change.