Green jobs will address environmental challenges - Environmentalist

Dr Eric Twum, a Chartered Environmentalist says the creation of green jobs will help address the numerous environmental challenges that have negatively impacted on the country’s socio-economic development.

He said green jobs contribute to improving the efficiency of energy and raw materials and limiting Green House Gas emissions whilst protecting and restoring ecosystems.

Dr Twum said this on Tuesday at a two-day validation workshop on the National Green Jobs Strategy in Accra, organised by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR) and the International Labour Organisation.

The forum brought together stakeholders across all sectors of the economy to contribute to the document for final implementation in January 2021.

The strategy is to create decent job opportunities for the teeming population of jobseekers, especially the youth, which would enhance the protection of the environment and the achievement of the environmental agenda.

The strategy, when finalized will examine the state of green jobs initiatives in the country and identified the challenges that needed to be addressed to promote the creations of green jobs in all sectors of the economy.

He stated that the promotion of green jobs would influence positively the country’s quest in adapting to the effects of climate change.

“The Ghana Green Jobs Programme has been designed to cover the four pathways critical for the promotion of green jobs and coordination of activities in that sub-sector for policy harmonization, support and effective decision making’, he said.

The programme, Dr. Twum said would build the capacity of MELR, including its departments and agencies, to monitor, regulate and provide support services to other Ministries Departments and Agencies, Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies and Private organisations involved in the promotion and creation of green jobs.

This includes private enterprises, skills development institutions and state agencies that provide support or consume the services and products generated by the enterprises.

To ensure that green jobs are captured in the country’s development agenda, he said the National Development Planning Commission would be responsible for incorporating the green jobs and their strategies into the country’s development plan in the short, medium and long terms.

Madam Emma Ofori Agyemang, the Director in charge of Policy Planning, Evaluation and Monitoring, MELR said the country acknowledged that addressing the issues of unemployment and vulnerable employment had to consider the protection of the environment and ensure a sustainable environmentally friendly future.

Given that, she said there was the need to place priority in focusing on sectors such as agriculture, energy, transportation and waste management, where several viable green jobs existed but with widespread decent work deficits.

She urged participants to contribute meaningfully to the discussions to guide the government in policy decision on sustainable jobs.