Once a month PAGE unpacks the complex policy questions that will determine the fate of our economies, our societies, and our planet for decades to come. Featuring voices from government, business, civil society and youth groups, The Green Renaissance is an essential listen on the green recovery debate.

On 9 April 2014, the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), as custodians of the Green Fund, hosted the National Green Jobs Dialogue.

The report highlights the extent to which SA’s skills response is effectively organised to meet the challenges associated with greening the economy, based on training planning, institutional frameworks and delivery channels. Its key finding is that SA is not ready for a comprehensive approach to green skills development, primarily because the overarching policy framework does not allow this.

The primary audience for this Global Guidance document is the higher education community. It provides an overview of the topic with connections to many resources. It includes key actions for educators preparing students to participate in the just transition to a green and more inclusive economy. These actions are essential to prevent large-scale human suffering due to climate instability, ecosystem degradation and economic disruptions. This document also includes vetted resources for senior administrators, curricular developers, organizational staff, educators, and employers.

The Climate Action for Jobs initiative provides a roadmap to boost climate action, ensuring that people’s jobs and well-being are at the centre of the transition to a carbon-neutral and climate-resilient economy. The Initiative brings a programmatic response and technical support for countries making commitments on just transition to achieve ambitious climate change mitigation and adaptation goals, while enhancing job creation and economic diversification, and ensuring a transition that is fair and inclusive.

Implementing a just transition to a low-carbon economy that aims to leave no one behind will require a context-specific and locally determined mix of legal standards, social protection, skills development and attitudinal transformation that create an enabling environment for green jobs to perpetuate and decent work opportunities for persons with disabilities to proliferate.

Green jobs are central to sustainable development and respond to the global challenges of environmental protection, economic development and social inclusion. By engaging governments, workers and employers as active agents of change, the ILO promotes the greening of enterprises, workplace practices and the labour market as a whole. These efforts create decent employment opportunities, enhance resource efficiency and build low-carbon sustainable societies