It is estimated that the circular economy will create almost 80 million new green jobs globally.
However, unlocking this potential requires a holistic approach and strong multi stakeholder collaboration. This includes strong enabling government policies, collaborative efforts between the public and private sectors, investments in green education and skill development, fostering youth engagement, and supporting green entrepreneurs. Additionally, harmonizing national efforts with regional and international priorities is crucial to catalyse collective action towards a sustainable future.
The Green Jobs for Youth Pact, is an example of this holistic approach and collaboration. It is a joint initiative with the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The pact focuses on three key pillars: employment and entrepreneurship, education and skills, and youth engagement. It emphasizes aligning policies, partnering with universities to enhance green education, fostering innovation through collaboration, and supporting green entrepreneurship.
The pact, through the GO4SDGs, is working in five regions to support governments in developing policies and frameworks to advance green jobs and green skills, build capacity for organizations to develop green jobs, promote meaningful youth engagement through dialogues, and foster green entrepreneurship through trainings and bootcamps.
As part of this work, in March 2024, UNEP, through GO4SDGs, together with UNITAR and the Northwestern Polytech University and in collaboration with ILO, UNDP, and UN Women in China, hosted a 2.5-day conference on Green Jobs for the Youth for Circularity in Xi'an, China. The event brought together 5 UN agencies and 149 in-person attendees, including educators, university students, private sector representatives, and development sector partners from across China.
As the first kind of workshop hosted under this topic by UN agencies in China, the agenda included increasing awareness of the importance of green jobs and green skills in addressing the triple planetary crisis and ensuring a just and inclusive transition to a circular economy, discussing the opportunities and existing gaps for green jobs and green skills. Additionally, it aimed to empower youth in China to advocate for green jobs creation and green skills building, discuss the role of different stakeholder groups in bridging green skills gaps and equipping youth for green jobs; and foster intergenerational dialogues on responsibilities in promoting green jobs and green skills for a circular economy.
In addition to Northwestern Polytechnical University, we had 9 other universities joining us from across China, including Tsinghua University, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Southeast University, East China Normal University, Lanzhou University, Guangzhou University, Wuhan University, and Beijing Foreign Studies University.
As an outcome, some universities were inspired to strengthen their efforts for youth engagement and empowerment for green skills building and agreed to partner with other universities in the region to design and implement a summer school on green skills and sustainable lifestyles, promote green nudges to create eco-friendly campuses through behavioral change, and continue collaboration and dialogues with relevant stakeholders to foster green entrepreneurship, and green job development.
Continuing with the work of supporting governments in policy coherence. The pact, through GO4SDGs is working with the Kenyan government together with Jacob’s Ladder Africa (JLA) to coordinate the first-ever Kenya National Green Jobs and Skills Development Workshop which will take place on May 3 in Nairobi. It will involve the participation of several cabinet secretaries, policy makers and key stakeholders from the green economy sector.
The overarching goal of the national workshop is to aggregate the efforts by key stakeholders to take stock of existing policies and their implementation to date, showcase the best practices, and collaboratively develop actionable targets to enable the development of a legislative framework aimed at advancing the opportunities in green jobs and green skills development for youth in the country.
In preparation for the workshop, extensive virtual and in-person consultations have been held, organised in three main workstreams:
- Skills development - exploring the role of education at various levels in enhancing preparedness for green jobs.
- enterprise development – looking at the role of the private and public sectors in creating opportunities for green job creation.
- Finance – exploring the contribution by NGOs, donors, and various financial institutions in funding green jobs and skills.
Over 70 participants were engaged in the consultations, which were held both virtually and in person. The discussions identified several key issues, including challenges in skills development and workforce capacity, a lack of clarity and coordination in green financing, policy gaps, and implementation inconsistencies. Additionally, the recommendations that were proposed include promoting coordination and information sharing among stakeholders, investing in skills development and capacity building, fostering partnerships and collaboration in green financing and enterprise development, among others. These findings and recommendations of the consultations will be presented at the upcoming national workshop aimed at strengthening the draft legislation on green jobs and green skills.
In addition, a high-level consultation was held between 6 principal secretaries and over 100 high level participants from education, finance, and development sectors on 17 April 2024, focusing on coordinating efforts towards green job creation and skills development.
Environment and Climate Principal Secretary Eng. Festus K. Ng'eno emphasized the importance of innovation in job creation, particularly in the context of Kenya's commitment to low-carbon development and green growth, aligning with international agreements such as the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement.
"Innovation in job creation will lead to green jobs and green skills development to take a low-carbon development and green growth pathway, in line with the Africa Climate Summit resolutions, which Kenya led and championed and which will cause the country to be in line with Kenya’s international obligation under the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement,” said Eng. Ng'eno.
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To participate in the workshop, please register using this link
For more information on the green jobs for youth pact and how to get involved visit GO4SDGs website or email [email protected]