- Firm
- Provisional
- Coming soon
- Revised
- Firm
- Provisional
- Coming soon
- Revised
How well are we doing?
Editor's note: We have recently refreshed and updated our data for all countries on the platform, as we revised the 21 policies we cover.
A vital part of any green economy transition is the creation of new green jobs that will provide sustainable livelihoods for citizens. Green jobs are those that improve environmental sustainability, either by making existing industries greener, helping to conserve or restore the natural world, or by creating employment in new ‘clean’ sectors like renewable energy.
The opportunity to create well-paid and highly-skilled jobs is one of the key upsides of a greener economy, so it is unsurprising that all 41 countries surveyed have started to make at least basic commitment. The exception to this was Serbia, which lacks a national green jobs strategy, with only fragmented and early-stage efforts on green skills and employment.
Performing extremely well are Ethiopia and the United Kingdom which both demonstrate a strong commitment to green job creation through dedicated national strategies. Ethiopia is setting a world-leading example when it comes to supporting access to new livelihoods, with plans to create 14 million new green jobs by 2025, a dedicated Jobs Creation Commission, and a national Plan of Action for Job Creation launching an inclusive vision for the transition. Meanwhile, France is showcasing pioneering work on the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) includes establishing a comprehensive legal architecture to support SSE and social enterprises, setting up a SSE State Secretariat in the Prime Minister’s office working with the French Treasury, and issuing a raft of financial support measures targeting SSE entities – with EU competition rules restraining even greater ambition. Notable in making strides is India, where recent efforts in advancing green skills training by the Council for Green Jobs are complemented by the 2025 budget integrating support for just transitions in fossil-dependent regions.
However, despite strong performance overall, the majority of the countries covered by the tracker, have yet to formally recognise social enterprises and initiate targeted schemes to help small businesses with the transition.
1.2 billion jobs or 40 per cent of world employment rely directly on a healthy and stable environment. Business cannot succeed on a planet that fails. Jobs cannot be sustained on a dying planet.
About this policy
A well-planned green jobs strategy helps to focus government efforts on creating industries and employment that will provide a decent wage while also contributing to the wider green economy. Green job creation is a sure-fire way of future-proofing an economy for more ambitious green policies that may be adopted further down the road. They can also offer essential new employment and reskilling opportunities for people working in sectors that are likely to face decline due to new policies or technologies; such as coal-mining.
The strongest policies will be integrated into national green economy plans and have detailed, well-funded proposals to incentivise the creation of new green jobs or even whole new industries. Addressing social inclusion, decent wages and a just transition are important; green jobs plans should prioritise marginalised communities and those reliant on fossil fuel industries. Identifying green jobs can be difficult and so many countries will only have nascent programmes, without detailed planning or funding. Other countries may not prioritise green jobs at all, and may only mention the employment and inequality challenges of a green transition in passing.
Case Study: Mongolia
Mongolia’s green economy transition planning has attempted to identify and promote ‘decent green jobs’ that contribute to sustainability while also meeting International Labour Organization (ILO) standards. The 2014 ‘Green Jobs Mapping in Mongolia’ assessed green and decent jobs in eight key sectors, identifying 285,300 green jobs – the majority of which were concentrated in animal husbandry – but with few of them meeting the standards to qualify as ‘decent green jobs’. Responding to this, the latest green jobs strategy is embodied in the ‘Action Plan: Green Development Policy of Mongolia’, which sets out national development objectives for green jobs (objective 4) and an implementation framework for green production and employment initiatives out to 2030 – in line with the ‘Mongolia Sustainable Development Vison 2030’.
Mongolia Country Profile