“The Green Jobs Assessment in Lebanon" draft report, presented for the first time Thursday, looked at four sectors - energy, construction, waste management, and agriculture and forestry - and identified potential for over a thousand new “green jobs" in each.
Green Jobs, according to the report, consists of any work that mitigates the effects of climate change and environmental degradation. It includes jobs that aim to protect ecosystems and biodiversity, decrease consumption of energy, materials and water through high-efficiency strategies, de-carbonize the economy and minimize the generation of waste and pollution.
“The creation of jobs in the field of environment and sustainable energy can be an effective response to the increasingly critical challenge of unemployment," said UNDP Country Director in Lebanon Shombi Sharp at a workshop that unveiled the draft report.
The UNDP-ILO study puts youth unemployment in Lebanon at 20 percent, and argues that any greening strategy must garner youth manpower, producing what it calls a win-win situation for the environment and the economy.
In the energy sector, green jobs already total 500, said the report. An Energy and Water Ministry plan to increase renewable energy production to 12 percent of total energy by 2020 is expected to boost the number of green jobs in the sector to 4,000. Read the full report here.
Source: Pacific Climate Change Portal, Beirut.
