The Australian Government – ILO Partnership Agreement is committed to transitioning work and workplaces toward a low-carbon, sustainable and environmentally sustainable future development across Asia and the Pacific. The Green Jobs in Asia project seeks to deepen ILO constituents’ understanding and commitments for the promotion of gender-sensitive green job opportunities and a just transition for workers and employers towards such a future providing decent work for all.

The Green Jobs in Asia project has been successfully launched in all five target countries: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines and Sri Lanka.

National Conferences on Green Jobs have been held in Indonesia, Nepal and Sri Lanka to facilitate national discussions and awareness-raising of green jobs. National conferences for Bangladesh and the Philippines are now scheduled.

Strong interest and support from constituents:

It is generally agreed by the constituents in project countries that the pursuit of green jobs is important, however the commercial viability and win-win aspect of green jobs adaptation needs to be further promoted with employers and workers in each country.

Sector demonstration projects will be conducted for the promotion of green jobs in various sectors, namely sustainable tourism in Indonesia, solid waste management in Sri Lanka and renewable energy in Bangladesh focussing on policy support and green skills upgrading.

Capacity building and the provision of reliable data sets and information will be critical to ensure the commitment and buy-in of constituents. Scoping exercises to assess the feasibility of conducting an econometrics study on environment-economic-employment linkages have been completed and the studies are scheduled for the third quarter. Training for trade unions has been conducted at the regional level with ILO’s Bureau for Workers’ Activities, and capacity building for social partners is being defined at country level.

Upon completion of the project, ILO constituents and national partners will be more knowledgeable about the impacts of climate policies on the labour market and the potential for gender responsive green jobs creation/maintenance.

You can also join lively online discussions. Hosted by the ILO in Asia-Pacific, and moderated by key players from our region, our professional Communities of Practice are growing. Come and have a look Green Jobs Community of Practice.