48 million jobs in the green economy of 12 countries in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe

The Millennium Institute green investment model shows how new investments of 2% of GDP in each of the next five years in 12 countries could create up to 48 million new jobs.

Middle income economies including Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, Bulgaria could create up to 19 million jobs over 5 years.

28 million jobs could be created in developed economies in Australia, Germany, Spain and the USA over 5 years.

Nepal, Indonesia and Ghana have the highest ratio of decent jobs per million dollars of investment with labour intensive economies benefiting from green investments.

For the first time economists have used the number of jobs that can be directly created from investments as the key indicator to analyse the impact of the green economy in 12 countries and seven industries.

“The economists have demonstrated how public and private investment in the green economy can create hundreds of millions of decent green jobs. Now governments must set targets for green jobs and provide the legislative and regulatory conditions so workers can have secure jobs, living wages and creating a healthy society and environment,” said Sharan Burrow, General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation.

The ITUC and the Millennium Institute have established the first ‘green job creation benchmark’ providing a guide to the jobs creation potential of selected industries, with the number of jobs per million dollars invested. 

The construction industry in Brazil could create up to 182 jobs per million dollars of investment.

In South Africa the transport industry could create up to 126 jobs per million dollars of investment.

Agriculture in Ghana could create 291 jobs per million dollars of investment.

“The outlook for transitioning to a greener economy with decent work will benefit workers, business, national economies and future generations,” said Sharan Burrow.

Sharan Burrow is meeting governments, business and workers in Brazil, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Nepal and Germany ahead of the G20 Summit and Rio + 20 Summit in June where world leaders must make commitments on green growth and decent job creation.

The Green and Decent Jobs summary (English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese) and Millennium Institute methodology (English) is available at www.ituc-csi.org

Sharan Burrow will be holding meetings with government, business and workers in Brazil 19 April, Bulgaria 2 May, Indonesia 10 May, Nepal 12 May.

The job creation forecasts refer to direct employment in each country and industry, these new jobs would also generate further employment growth with indirect jobs when taking the multiplier effect into account.

Countries analysed in report: Germany, Spain, Bulgaria, Brazil, Dominican Republic, USA, South Africa, Ghana, Tunisia, Indonesia, Nepal, Australia. Industries analysed in report: Energy, construction, transport, manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, water.

www.ituc-csi.org