Green Jobs at micro level in Africa

As occasional guest blogger (after a bit of a break), I wish to share a few links I have come across recently about Green Jobs in Africa on a micro level, triggered by coming across this interesting company merging green jobs with low-impact design and living: touchingtheearthlightly.com

and a pre-announcement for the Green Economics Conference in Cape Town in January 2011.

While at a macro level the topic of Green Jobs is widely debated (see previous entries on Sustainable Options and some information from UNEP), others simply get on with the job of creating green jobs at the micro or local level.

Some interesting examples of creating local green jobs in Africa, include:

• an innovative take on clean energy in Kenya,
• a drinking water solution from South Africa,
• recycling for job creation in Ghana
• and revisiting tourism as a natural, yet often under-performing green job creator.

Gerhard Buttner

H/T planeta.com video, Afrika Tourism

Another view on green jobs

With the emergence of a Global Green New Deal, the question whether government investments and stimulus packages in greenery will pay off is very prominent (see also earlier post on a damning report by the Institute of Energy Research in the US on green jobs for example). 

A study by the Pew Centre emphasised that jobs in the clean energy economy were growing faster then overall jobs, as  reported in an article on SocialFunds.Com:

Despite a lack of sustained government support between 1998 and 2007, the number of jobs in the emerging clean energy economy grew nearly two and a half times faster than the overall job market during that time. According to a report by the Pew Center on the States, jobs in the clean energy economy grew at a rate of 9.1% during that time, compared to a rate of 3.7% in traditional jobs.

and, what is more intriguing is that 

...job growth in the clean energy economy occurred without significant government engagement. However, recent developments such as funds for clean energy provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) show promise for rapid growth in the field. The stimulus bill provides $85 billion in spending for energy and transportation, and includes $21 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy, as well as more than $30 billion for spending on a variety of clean energy programs. 

The net costs of these jobs over time remains an important question (see also here for an experience with renewable energy in Spain).

Green Jobs

A recent study by the Institute for Energy Research in the US agues that subsidising "green jobs" may not be such a good idea after all:

Unfortunately, it is highly questionable whether a government campaign to spur “green jobs” 

would have net economic benefits.  Indeed, the distortionary impacts of government intrusion 

into energy markets could prematurely force business to abandon current production 

technologies for more expensive ones. Furthermore, there would likely be negative economic 

consequences from forcing higher-cost alternative energy sources upon the economy.  These 

factors would likely increase consumer energy costs and the costs of a wide array of energy- 

intensive goods, slow GDP growth and ironically may yield no net job gains. More likely, they 

would result in net job losses. 

For full report see here.

Green fiscal stimulus

A new paper Global Governance: The G20 and a Global Green New Deal analyses the worldwide green fiscal stimulus. South Africa's green stimulus as percentage of the total fiscal stimulus of $7.5bn was 10.7%, compared to the UK's 10.6%, the US's 12%, China's 33.4% and South Korea's 95.2%.

Abstract

As the world recovers from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the international community should promote a mix of policies to sustain this global recovery and create jobs through reducing carbon dependency, ecological degradation and poverty. Such a Global Green New Deal (GGND) requires a long-term commitment to implementing and coordinating “green investments” by the Group of 20 (G20), who should also adopt complementary pricing policies and foster international aid and other actions in support of the GGND. Developing economies should provide clean water and sanitation for the poor, create safety nets, invest in heath and education, and target energy and water poverty. Such a global strategy can revive economies, create jobs and improve the sustainability of world development.

Full citation: Edward B. Barbier (2010). Global Governance: The G20 and a Global Green New Deal. Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, Vol. 4, 2010-2. http://www.economics-ejournal.org/economics/journalarticles/2010-2.

Priorities for Environmental Expenditure

The South African government has released the Medium Term Strategic Framework

a framework to guide government's programme in the electoral period 2009-2014. This is what the report has to say on the environment:

 

The main objective of government is to encourage sustainable resource management and use by focusing on various interventions including the diversification of the energy mix in pursuance of renewable energy alternatives and promotion of energy efficiency; adopting waste reduction practices by encouraging the re-use of waste outputs as productive inputs; enforcing zero tolerance approach to illegal and unsustainable exploitation of resources; improving air and atmospheric quality for health and well being of citizens; supporting local and sustainable food production; sustainable water use and preserving quality of drinking water and enhancing biodiversity and the preservation of natural habitats.

The focus is on energy efficiency and renewables, waste, exploitation of natural resources, air quality and health, water use and quality, biodiversity and natural habitats. No specifics, such as targets, timeframes and allocations are mentioned. The report does include a list of programmes, but do not appear conclusive:

Establishing a National framework response on climate change mitigation and adaptation whilst maintaining our reputation as a global player

A common system for environmental impact management across government in developing the Environmental Impact Management Strategy that will ensure improved efficiency and effectiveness

Implementing the Water for Growth and Development strategy: strengthening institutional capacity for water management so that water scarcity is not exacerbated by ineffectual management, and finding the right mix of mechanisms to effect change in behaviour including regulatory, self-regulatory, market-based instruments and awareness and education. Projects such as the Mokolo River Augumentation Project and the Lower Sunday’s river aimed at improving water availability and irrigation especially for poor farmers and providing Previously Disadvantaged Users access to user rights will continue

Finalise a policy process on market-based instruments such as taxes, charges and incentives that can be used to promote environmental protection and biodiversity conservation

Implementation of the National Framework for Sustainable Development to ensure that the country follows a sustainable development trajectory for now and into the future

Promote innovation and diversification towards alternative production of resources

To pursue and explore further the concept of Green Jobs including scaling up labour intensive natural resources management practices that contribute to decent work and livelihood opportunities. In particular projects and industries are being pursued in the fields of marine aquaculture development, wildlife management, waste services and ecosystems rehabilitation programmes

Efforts to meet the energy efficiency target of 12% by 2015 and renewable energy target of 10 0 GWh by 2013, will be enhanced by creating an enabling environment for renewable energy, through for example implementing the renewable energy feed-in tariff and building the local renewable energy manufacturing capacity

Effectively managing and allocating the radio frequency spectrum, which is a finite and scarce national resource, prioritising the allocation of the spectrum for developmental purposes.

A Cretan Commitment

What do economists have to say about the ecological and economic crises?

I had the fortune to visit the beautiful island of Crete during the first week of June with a group of people thinking and debating on the roots of the economic and ecological crises, how to respond to it and what the role of environmental ethics is in this regard.

The organiser asked me to draft a synopsis, a sort of an appeal to fellow economists. Here it is:

1. The current Keynesian economic response to the crises, with a focus on credit and spending does not recognise the deeper structural, ethical and ontological roots of the crises.

2. The ‘Green New Deal’, a response where green economy strategies are launched around the globe that promise jobs, a revitalized economy and at the same time intended to start addressing the ecological crises mostly through the deployment of cleaner technology, is not a sufficient response as it does not recognise the ethical and ontological dimensions of the crises.

3. It is recognised that ecological economics as an emerging interdisciplinary science includes elements of nature, justice and dynamics in its view of reality.

4. Ecological economists are called to challenge the problem of moral choice in the context of intellectual pluralism and the implications of a generalised theory of entropy that guides action-orientated decisions on sustainability.

5. Ecological economists are called to recognise the fragility of their discipline and build up a more resilient and integer theory to assist in transitions towards better sustainability.

6. Economists are called to further develop and build on theories that view individuals and communities as moral agents, and not as agents either naturalistically determined or endowed with unlimited freedom of individuality.

7. Economists are called to reflect on the paradigmatic implications of the idea that human beings are not autonomous, but stand in relation to God, to other human beings and to God’s creation.

8. Economists are called to recognise that theology, the study on the nature of God, as revealed in Word and creation, has a lot to offer on both the organisation/structure, as well as direction of such relationships.

9. Economists are called to recognise that ethics is not the outcome of self-interested choice.

10. Economists are called to reflect on the idea that the source of ethics is not revealed within human reason or in human experience, nor in the laws of nature, but is solely based in revelation by God as read in God’s own creation and in the written Word.

11. Economists are also called to study and respond to the ontological critique that economic science does not account for the wholeness of reality, as evident by its tendency to focus on the outcomes of a deductive, mathematical approach as a basis for real-world interventions.

12. Economists are called to develop approaches, models and tools that do better justice to complex realities, accepting the importance of the particular as well as the broader systematic unity of things.

13. Economists are called to realise that the power of the discipline in contemporary culture stand within a context, comes with an enormous responsibility to act for the improvement of the lot of humanity and of creation.

14. Economists are called, like anyone else, to take serious the idea that we are accountable to the living God, and should strive to come to wise decisions on how to manage the interrelationships amongst humans and the earth that God has created and sustains every day.

Note: This is a draft synopsis as based solely on my own interpretation and do not necessary represent those of others at the symposium

Obama: a welcome sensitivity to green and poor?

From the UNEP website an overview of Obama's promises on greenery (and poverty):

Here is a selection of the environment-related points from US President Barack Obama's Inauguration Speech on 20 January 2009

"Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet."

"We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age."

"With old friends and former foes, we'll work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat and roll back the specter of a warming planet."

"To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds."

"And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders, nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it."

Read the full speech at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/us/politics/20text-obama.html

Obama's Green Revolution?

From WSJ, Environmental Capital:

In a video message prepared for a global-warming summit in California, Mr. Obama seems to say that battling climate change will be in the leadoff slot, with the clean-energy program batting cleanup (hat tip):

My presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change that will strengthen our security and create millions of new jobs in the process. That will start with a federal cap-and-trade system. We’ll establish strong annual targets that set us on a course to reduce emissions to their 1990 levels by 2020, and reduce them an additional 80% by 2050. Further, we’ll invest $15 billion each year to catalyze private-sector efforts to build a clean-energy future.

If this is indeed the case it will send a strong signal to take carbon constraints seriously.