Labor Official Supports the Creation of Green Jobs

A Philippine labor official believes the local economy can meet both social and environmental goals with the creation of green jobs, and that it behooves government itself to address this pressing need.

“The government supports the enactment of policies that address the current needs of the economy for the benefit of the present and future generations,” said Bernard Paul Mangulabnan, Acting Chief Labor and Employment Officer, Institute for Labor Studies, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), at the recently concluded Barangay Walang Iwanan (BWI) Summit.

“Today, the need lies in having more decent jobs available for our people, protecting our environment, and promoting ecological integrity. This is why we are helping to facilitate the creation of green jobs to achieve all these.”

BWI Summit 2019 is a collaborative effort among leading non-profit organization Gawad Kalinga, French NGO ACTED, as well as the French discussion platform Convergences that aims to gather stakeholders to discuss and act on urgent social and environmental issues, transforming Filipino communities towards the 3Zero Philippines goal (Zero Exclusion, Zero Carbon, and Zero Poverty). Among the key topics discussed during the summit was the impact of Green Jobs and how it is being heavily promoted in the country.

Green jobs, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), are “decent jobs that contribute to preserve or restore the environment, be they in traditional sectors such as manufacturing and construction, or in new, emerging green sectors such as renewable energy and energy efficiency.”

Illustration for the International Labor Organization (ILO)

In addition, ILO says green jobs are those that “help improve energy and raw materials efficiency, limit greenhouse gas emissions, minimize waste and pollution, protect and restore systems, and support adaptation to the effects of climate change.”

The scant information about green jobs in the current Philippine labor market, in spite of the passage of the Green Jobs Act (Republic Act No. 10771) in 2016, may be an indicator of the urgency for employers in both the private and public sectors to ramp up the creation of these jobs. Despite the strong push towards green jobs, setting up the transition still poses challenges.

“The creation of green jobs is not a stand-alone policy. It involves a lot of factors, the environment, economy, society, educational and skills, among others. The structural changes will definitely be a challenge as production and consumption will be both affected,” said Gwyneth Palmos, ILO Consultant.

“The ILO has been providing support to enable the Philippine government, employers, workers and other stakeholders to transition into the greening of the economy and we are glad to see much progress in the country.”

Since 2016, the ILO has assisted the Philippines in adopting and implementing the ILO’s guidelines for a “Just Transition towards Environmentally Sustainable Economies and Societies for All” (Just Transition) Among other activities, this initiative has resulted in the development of an “intervention model at the industry, enterprise and local levels with capacity-building activities for all stakeholders to showcase measures associated with the just transition,” the ILO reports in its 2018 World Employment Social Outlook: Greening with Jobs. The Just Transition initiative includes development of employment projections model, support to the formulation of the National Green Jobs Human Resource Development Plan, establishment of the statistical system to measure employment in the environmental sector and green jobs, development of the assessment and certification system for granting the Green Jobs Act incentives, and integrating green jobs and just transition measures in national and sectoral policies and frameworks.

“The powerful way to combine social and environmental development is through constant promotion of green jobs. It set economies in reinforcing a win-win trajectory,” stressed Palmos. “In reducing the environmental impact of industries and sectors, we increase the ability to cope with climate change and scarce resources, while generating decent employment. This way, we meet both our social and environmental goals, which eventually makes economic growth more sustainable.”

In the same ILO report, the organization expresses its confidence that 14 million new jobs can be created in Asia and the Pacific by 2030, given the right policies to promote a greener global economy that ensures just transition for all.

“We still have hope to turn things around by promoting and supporting the creation of green jobs here in the Philippines” said Fabien Courteille, the Philippine lead for triple zero alliance of ACTED/Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation.

“Through Barangay Walang Iwanan 2019, we hope key players and actors in society will together and come up with the best solutions to our most pressing environmental and social issues in the country.”

Courteille added that the community can do much more to “pave the way towards a 3Zero Philippines. We are hopeful that we will be able to encourage more youth, stakeholders, and key decision makers to be part of our movement for a Zero Inclusion, Zero Carbon, and Zero Poverty Philippines.”

To know more about Barangay Walang Iwanan, visit www.facebook.com/gawadkalinga.com.