CO2 Pricing Efforts to Create 14.3 Million Green Jobs World Wide-ILO Report for Copenhagen

GENEVA (ILO News) – The International Labour Organization (ILO) will take part in the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to draw attention to the value of “green jobs” for reaping the development benefits and meeting the employment challenge associated with the goal of cutting CO2 emissions.

In close cooperation with other UN agencies, the ILO can contribute among others to facilitating economic and social transition for key sectors; promoting green jobs which contribute to growth while reducing emissions; and greening the workplace by mobilizing employers and workers.

In this context, Ms Sachiko Yamamoto, Director of the ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and head of the ILO delegation at the Conference, will speak during panel discussions on “Advancing work on adaptation to climate change” (on 14 December) and on “The U.N. system: Delivering as one on climate change” (on 16 December), to show how well designed climate and labour market policies can contribute to realizing a double dividend on both environmental and social fronts.

The ILO’s latest World of Work Report which provides an attempt to quantify the employment challenge arising from the urgency to curb CO2 emissions(Note 1), indicates that nearly 40 per cent of all jobs worldwide – accounting for about 600 million workers – are in highly carbon intensive sectors.

The report shows that by imposing a price on CO2 emissions as it will be discussed in Copenhagen, and using the consequent revenues to cut labour taxes, employment would rise by 0.5 per cent by 2014. This is equivalent to over 14.3 million net new jobs for the world economy as a whole. And even larger gains would arise due to technological change induced by green policies.

On her way to Copenhagen, Ms Yamamoto had this to say;

“There is growing international awareness of the need to arrest climate change, in order to put the world economy on a more sustainable track. Already, as part of packages to overcome the ongoing global economic and jobs crisis, countries have launched infrastructure investments designed to promote transitions to a greener economy. Such efforts would at the same time serve social objectives because spending on green projects promotes recovery and job creation. Making green jobs a reality: the ILO’s Global Programme”

The ILO is endeavouring to become the recognized international organization for dealing with the impact of climate change and other environmental challenges and opportunities in the world of work.

Post a Job! $5 for 30 days For more information on the ILO green jobs initiative and on ILO participation in the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, please visit:• The ILO website: http://www.ilo.org/integration/events/events/lang–en/WCMS_119193/index.htm • The UNFCCC website: http://unfccc.in/

The ILO was created in 1919, as part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, to reflect the belief that universal and lasting peace can be accomplished only if it is based on social justice.The Constitution was drafted between January and April, 1919, by the Labour Commission set up by the Peace Conference, which first met in Paris and then in Versailles. The Commission, chaired by Samuel Gompers, head of the American Federation of Labour (AFL) in the United States, was composed of representatives from nine countries: Belgium, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States. It resulted in a tripartite organization, the only one of its kind bringing together representatives of governments, employers and workers in its executive bodies. The Constitution contained ideas tested within the International Association for Labour Legislation, founded in Basel in 1901. Advocacy for an international organization dealing with labour issues began in the nineteenth century, led by two industrialists, Robert Owen (1771-1853) of Wales and Daniel Legrand (1783-1859) of France. The driving forces for ILO’s creation arose from security, humanitarian, political and economic considerations. Summarizing them, the ILO Constitution’s Preamble says the High Contracting Parties were ‘moved by sentiments of justice and humanity as well as by the desire to secure the permanent peace of the world…

To this end, it is working to deepen its expertise in analysis and policy advice on the formulation and implementation of policies and measures which contribute to recovery from economic crisis in the short-term and to promoting fair globalization and the development of sustainable enterprises and economies which are efficient, socially just and environmentally sound in the medium to long term.

The ILO is currently assisting 10 member countries in addressing these issues.