The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the UN Institute for Training and Research has organised social talks on ‘Green Jobs and Mitigation to Climate Change.’

Green jobs in renewable energies, sustainable agriculture, forestry and fishery, transport, waste management, and green construction help to mitigate climate change, and at the same time, create social benefits.

In order to discuss different perspectives on the issue, share new research findings and information on specific sectors where green jobs can be created, opportunities idenfified and gaps encountered by countries in the transition to a green economy, the ILO and the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) organised  the social talk on “Green Jobs and Mitigation to Climate Change”, in December 2011 in the margins of COP17/CMP7 of the UNFCCC in Durban, South Africa. This discussion was part of a broader series of social talks sponsored by the UN Task Team on the Social Dimensions of Climate Change formed by 20 UN agencies.

Ana Sanchez, from the Green Jobs Programme of the ILO, presented the event and welcomed the participants. The first speaker, Mr Llorenç Serrano, Confederal Secretary of the Spanish trade union, Comisiones Obreras, presented the work done by his organisation in the area of green economy and green jobs. He presented four studies undertaken by the Trade Union Institute on Work, Health and Environment (ISTAS) on job creation potential in renewable energies, sustainable mobility, refurbishment of buildings and sustainable waste management and recycling.

The four reports showed the important positive effects in terms of job creation in the short, medium and long term of policies and programmes, aiming at incentivizing these four sectors. In addition, findings regarding the labour conditions for green jobs as well as the gender dimensions were presented.

The second speaker was Ms. Yvette Pena Lopez from the USA-based Blue Green Alliance, a coalition formed by environmental NGOs and the labor movement. Ms. Lopez presented the recently launched campaign Jobs 21. The initiative compiles a number of proposals with the goal of creating jobs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems and further developing the industrial capacity of the American economy.

Finally, Ms. Karen Hedeman from the National Council for Climate Change and Clean Development Mechanism of the Dominican Republic explained the objectives and expected benefits of the national UN CC:Learn project that will be implemented in the Dominican Republic over the next 18 months.

Ms. Hedeman highlighted that in order to benefit from the job potentials of a green economy, countries needed to make sure that national education and training programmes corresponded to the skills required for green jobs.