Green jobs
Topic: Employment, Unemployment and Informalisation · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Green jobs are decent jobs that protect or restore the environment. "Decent" means fair pay, security, social protection and rights at work. Green jobs are found in renewable energy, energy efficiency, waste management and the circular economy, which reuses and recycles materials instead of throwing them away. They matter because they create employment and cut pollution at the same time. A just transition means protecting workers who depend on polluting sectors, such as coal, while the economy shifts to cleaner ones.
Example
Technicians who install and maintain rooftop solar panels hold green jobs, and so do workers at a plastic-recycling unit. Retraining coal-mine workers for solar or wind work is part of a just transition.
Don't confuse with
- Any job in an environmental sector: a waste-picker with no contract, no safety gear and no social security works in waste management, but it is not a green job, because a green job must also be decent work.
Related concepts
- Employment generation
- Direct and indirect employment generation
- Employment generation programmes
- Right to work
- Wage employment guarantee
- Unemployment allowance