Speech by Achim Steiner,
UN Under-Secretary General and Executive
Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP),
Governing Body of the International Labour
Office's 300th Session
Working Party on the Social Dimension of
Globalization
Panel discussion on 'Decent Work' for sustainable
development - The challenge of climate change
Geneva, 12 November 2007
Michel JARRAUD,
Secretary-General of the World Meteorological
Organisation;
Supachai PANITCHPAKDI,
Secretary-General,
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD)
former Director-General of the World Trade
Organization(WTO);
Mathew FARROW
Head of Environment policy,
Confederation of British Industry (CBI);
Joaquín NIETO
Secretary for Occupational Safety, Health
and Environment,
Comisiones Obreras Trade Union (CCOO), Spain
President, Sustainlabour
(international labour foundation for sustainable
development);
Colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,
In a few short weeks Governments meet in
Bali, Indonesia, for next round of climate
change talks under the UN Climate Change
Convention.
It comes against a backdrop of unprecedented
momentum on this issue - perhaps an issue
that it the greatest challenge of this generation.
Over the past year - and in no small part
due to the fourth assessment of the UNEP
and World Meteorological Organisation-established
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- the momentum on global warming has been
nothing short of breathtaking.
The science has taken on ever more sobering
clarity and the economics have also become
clearer - combating climate change will
cost perhaps as little as less than one
per cent of global GDP a year for around
30 years.
The costs of delay will cost far much more.
A point incidentally made abundantly clear
on the wider sustainability challenges in
UNEP's flagship report - the Global Environment
Outlook-4, launched last month to a great
deal of public and media interest.
If, as they must, governments get down in
Bali to either agree a post 2012 emission
reduction regime or set the parameters and
deadline for negotiations, then environmentally
and economically we will have genuine cause
to celebrate.
But I believe there are others who can
also raise their glasses - the unemployed,
those in the dole queue from Detroit to
Delhi and Bogota to Beijing.
Those too who, rightly or wrongly, fear
their employment prospects are being out-sourced
to Hyderabad, Hanoi or Hong Kong.
Decent work too for new graduates and for
a new generation of workers now and in the
future.
Ladies and gentlemen,
When we talk about environmental sustainability
and climate change, we often downplay the
significant employment opportunities that
will arise if nations can collectively agree
on a transition to a low carbon and resource
efficient economy.
Jobs not for just the middle classes -
what now are being called 'green collar'
jobs. But also job generation in construction
and agriculture to engineering and transportation.
In many ways that transition is already
occurring.
This is partly as a result of the existing
Kyoto climate agreement and its carbon trading
and clean development mechanisms.
Partly in anticipation of even tighter
controls on greenhouse gases post 2012.
Partly because on the wider environmental
front, society may be finally waking up
to challenges of declining ecosystems and
unsustainable exploitation of natural and
nature-based resources - and is perhaps
beginning to invest in more intelligent
management of these economically important
assets.
And partly because the relationship between
organized labour and captains of industry
and the environment - once characterized
by suspicion and a concern that environmental
regulation was bad for business and bad
for jobs - is blossoming as a result of
a sense of mutual self interest.
Let me give a few examples of the transition
that is already underway.
A study by the US-based Management Information
Services estimated that in 2005 the environmental
industry in America generated more than
5.3 million jobs; over $340 billion in sales
and close to $50 billion in tax revenues.
The same study estimates that the environmental
industry employs ten times more workers
than the US pharmaceutical industry.
In June this year, a UK-based company
called Eaga which improves the energy efficiency
of homes, floated on the London Stock Exchange
- it employs 4,000 people in one of the
UK's former coal mining regions, a significant
number of whom worked in the pits before
they were shut in the 11000s.
A new report by UNEP's Sustainable Energy
Finance Initiative estimates that investment
in renewables has now reached $100 billion
- it now represents 18 per cent of new investments
in the power sector.
Hansen, a wind power gear box maker owned
by the Indian company Suzlon is building
a new factory in Coimbatore which will supply
up to 3,000 gear boxes and employ 800 people.
A second factory just built in Tianjan,
China, will employ 600 people.
The Indian city of Delhi is introducing
new eco-friendly compressed natural gas
buses which will create an additional 18,000
new jobs.
Direct employment in tourism in Kenya
- tourism essentially based around wildlife,
national parks and natural landscapes -
stands at around 200,000. The wider impacts
on the economy and on employment are estimated
to be far higher.
And it is not just about job creation but
attractiveness for prospective employees
and job satisfaction for existing ones.
A new survey in the United States found
that 80 per cent of young people questioned
were interested in a job that had a positive
impact on the environment and over 90 per
said they would chose to work for an environmentally-friendly
and socially responsible one.
Another new survey of workers in Brazil,
China, Germany, India, the UK and the US,
found that employees who perceive their
company has a strong CSR policy are happier
and more likely to stay.
And what about wider social impacts?
The UK launched its Environmental Task
Force as part of the New Deal for young
unemployed people in 1998. The Government
there estimates that around 45 per cent
of those taking part find work immediately
afterwards.
The Green Jobs Act in the United States
passed recently as part of the Energy Bill,
talks about the green economy as a 'pathway
out of poverty'.
Part of the budget is earmarked specifically
for the training of at-risk youths, former
prison inmates and those on welfare in renewable
energies and the 'green' building sector.
And what of the future?
Roland Berger, a Munich-based consultancy,
estimates that more people will be employed
in environmental tech-industries in Germany
in 2020 than in the car industry.
Working Capital, a report by UNEP's Finance
Initiative which involves some 170 financial
institutions, estimates that the market
providing finance for clean and renewable
energies could reach $1.9 trillion by 2020.
A related but separate report by the world's
third largest law firm - commissioned by
UNEPFI- concludes that legally, the investment
community has in key cases the responsibility
to incorporate environmental, social and
governance (ESG) issues into investment
decisions.
A round table this year in Brazil, organized
by UNEP and the Association of Brazilian
Investment Banks, concluded that it was
not only institutional investors but also
High Net-Worth Individuals who are progressively
realizing the importance of ESG-inclusion
for long-term investment performance.
The Clean Development Mechanism of the
Kyoto Protocol could deliver $100 billion
of funds flowing from North to South for
investments in carbon off-setting projects
such as renewable energy schemes and tree
planting projects.
An alliance of tropical forest countries
are pressing for standing forests to be
included in the carbon markets which in
turn could generate new employment opportunities
in sustainable management, conservation
and tourism.
Several countries including Costa Rica,
Norway and New Zealand, have pledged carbon
neutrality which in turn will require investment
and employment in carbon friendly sectors.
In the wider environmental landscape,
more creative market mechanisms are emerging
such as payment for ecosystem services -
power companies with hydroelectric stations
are paying farmers and communities to maintain
forests and soils upstream -Costa Rica and
Kenya for example.
Debt for Nature swaps - where countries
have some of their debts cancelled with
some of the savings invested in conservation
and rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems.
Last year the United States agreed to reduce
Paraguay's debt payments by over $7m with
the funds to be spent on the conservation
and restoration of the Atlantic Forest of
Alto Parana.
France has also signed a 'debt for nature
swap, with the Government of Cameroon aimed
at the Congo River Basin.
The World Travel and Tourism Council estimates
that a country like Kenya will see one in
twelve of its work force employed directly
or indirectly in tourism by 2010.
Over 20 states and some 300 cities in
the United States have adopted renewable
energy portfolio standards and/or emission
reductions targets in line with Kyoto Protocol.
Last week the National Development and
Reform Commission and the Commerce Ministry
in China announced bans and restrictions
on foreign investment in mining and some
energy sectors.
China says it wants to encourage foreign
investment that will help China protect
the environment, cut pollution, develop
renewable energy and stimulate innovation.
Research by the University of California
at Berkeley indicates that between 250,000
to 300,000 new jobs could be generated in
the United States if 20 per cent of that
country's electricity needs were met by
renewables.
A recent report by the US economist Roger
Bezdek concluded that with the right government
incentives and investments in research and
development, renewable energy and energy
efficiency industries could create 40 million
jobs across the United States alone by 2030.
Ladies and gentlemen, if we add all this
together we clearly stand on the edge of
something quite exciting and transformational.
How do we make it happen - how does the
international community assist in realizing
this potential on a scale, at a pace and
across the globe, not just in Europe and
the United States but in Ecuador to Eritrea.
The United Nations, in partnership with
organized labour, the private sector, local
authorities and civil society, has a responsibility
and a defining role to Deliver as One in
the green jobs agenda.
Part of that responsibility is to assist
governments to make the right choices in
the current climate negotiations - for without
a strong and decisive emission reductions
regime the transformational foundations
being laid today could prove to be built
on sand tomorrow.
The UN also has the classic role of setting
norms and standards - UNEP and other agencies
are working with global initiatives to establish
the ground rules for bio-fuel production.
Another area that underlines the challenge
for the UN in terms of norms and standards,
including the ILO and UNEP is in the area
of waste.
From the disposal of end-of-life electronics
to ships - many developing countries can
generate employment in these fields but
it cannot be at the expense of workers health
and safety or the wider environment.
But equally it would be wrong to establish
'green' barriers or tariffs that cut the
developing world out off such economic and
livelihood opportunities.
The UN can also demonstrate and pilot creative
market mechanisms - we recently concluded
a solar energy project in India that has
brought clean energy to 100,000 people and
by inference improved education and employment
prospects.
Here the key was working with banks to
bring down the interest on solar loans so
they become affordable for the rural poor.
Research and Development is also key and
an area in which the UN can pilot projects
and persuade governments.
During the oil crisis of the late 1970s,
one billion dollars was invested globally
in photo voltaic research. It triggered
a 50 per cent improvement in photo cell
efficiency.
However in many parts of the world, public-funded
R and D has been in decline - this needs
to be reversed and in doing so it can not
only generate new solutions to the carbon
challenge and wider environmental challenges,
but also generate new jobs in science and
engineering.
There are many more suggestions and ideas
that can be explored.
Ladies and gentlemen,
UNEP is striving to bring ever greater meaning
and action to bear on environmental employment.
We have strengthened our relationship and
our activities with organized labour.
Last year, in cooperation with the ILO
and support from the World Health Organization,
organized a trade union assembly at our
headquarters in Nairobi and launched the
Workers' Initiatives for Lasting Legacy.
In cooperation with the ILO and SustainLabour
and with funding from Spain, we are also
strengthening our assistance so that organized
labour can participate more fully in international
environmental processes including the climate
change convention meetings.
It will contribute to the implementation
of the resolutions adopted by the first
Trade Union Assembly on Labour and the Environment
and to launch environmental initiatives
in the workplaces, in Africa, Asia Pacific
and Latin America and the Caribbean.
UNEP fully supports and will be an active
partner with the ILO under its banner "Green
Jobs" initiative - this is partly about
workers rights but also responsibilities
in a climate challenged world.
However, it is also about the enormous
opportunities emerging as a result of the
urgent need to transit to a low carbon society
and to climate proof economies against climatic
impacts.
Part of that initiative includes "Investing
in People' and supporting the training and
development of the skills needed in areas
of climate, adaptation, energy and resource
efficiency and introducing new technology.
There is emerging one very direct initiative
in which this could be tested and piloted
almost immediately.
Last month the Chief Executive Board of
the UN agreed to move the entire UN system
towards carbon neutrality under the coordination
of the Environmental Management Group of
the UN.
Ladies and gentlemen, this will be a challenge
not least in operations such as peace-keeping
set aside the large and global 'estate'
that UN owns or leases in countries and
communities around the world.
However, this represents a real opportunity
to not only practically demonstrate the
UN's climate credentials by phasing-out
our emissions but to demonstrably prove
by action on the ground that system-wide
we are also in the 'Green Job' business.
Together with the ILO and other colleagues,
I would be keen to see how we can influence
this -especially in respect to the labour
policies and contracts involving carbon
neutrality initiatives at UN offices and
operations in developing countries.
Thanks for your attention
