Green jobs
ABOUT 72,000 people were working in environmentally important industries in the formal sector in Fiji in 2018.
This was highlighted by Global Green Growth Institute Pacific regional representative Katerina Syngellakis at the launch of the Fiji Green Jobs Assessment: A Preliminary Study of Green Employment in Fiji report, in Suva yesterday.
However she said not all these jobs could be considered green from the information which they had.
“From those estimation was made at least 6700 of those jobs would be green, the formal wage and salary jobs and those covered mainly tourism environmental services and jobs, energy and water sufficiency and sustainability.”
She added this estimate did not include general industrial activities, transport or construction for 2018.
“Agriculture and forestry provide substantial core environmental employment but there was insufficient information to really make an accurate estimate.
“So with these caveats, about 3.4 per cent of formal sector salary and wage jobs in Fiji in 2018 were green as a baseline.”
She highlighted 25 per cent was in sustainable tourism (accommodations only), 33 per cent was in the water sector, 10 per cent in government and 10 per cent in sustainable energy while 10 per cent was in a range of work as environmental specialist's.
According to deputy secretary operations for Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, George Tavo the assessment considered initiatives with potential for green job creation, estimated existing green employment, assessed the potential for additional green jobs creation, identified major employment changes as the Fijian economy greens, and recommended how green employment could grow while minimising other job losses.
“Since the signing onto the Paris Agreement three years ago, Fiji has contributed and accomplished a lot in terms of addressing climate change nationally, regionally and internationally,” he said.
“The Fijian Government continues to strive towards meeting its international commitments whilst working towards meeting the needs of our people and ensuring complementarity and connectivity of all efforts from the national to the regional and international level.
“At the global level, Fiji continues to lead and advocate for more climate action and demand for increased ambition from industrial countries.”
Mr Tavo added the Fiji green jobs assessment report being launched yesterday aligned with the low emission development strategy, which recommends the development of a detailed Fiji green jobs study.
“The Fijian Government is demonstrating a strong resolve to take action and reduce its emissions and the Fiji green jobs assessment is a vital step to achieve this.
“The path to achieve net zero emission is not an easy one.
“It can only be achieved through partnership and collective effort from all stakeholders,” he said.
According to the report green jobs produced goods and services or made production process more energy and resource efficient and less polluting.
It stated this were more environmentally sustainable then conventional alternatives and offer working condition which met standards of decent work.