Climate commission to certify ‘green job’ creating firms

THE Climate Change Commission (CCC) is drafting guidelines for assessing and certifying employers taking part in green job initiatives, a program which it hopes to pilot-test within the year.

During the Barangay Walang Iwanan (BWI) 2019 Summit on Thursday, CCC Division Chief for Policy Research and Development Jerome E. Ilagan said that CCC, “is now developing a standards and certification system in line with the incentives for businesses and enterprises promoting green jobs.”

These guidelines are in line with Republic Act 10771 or Philippine Green Jobs Act of 2016. The Philippine Green Jobs Act aims to incentivize businesses who generate and sustain green jobs as certified by the CCC.

“As of this moment, we are gearing up to have the draft assessment and certification standards to be pilot-tested to further substantiate the draft guidelines to ensure that everyone is consulted in the process of finalizing and adapting the guidelines,” he said.

Mr. Ilagan said the certification process takes in input from various government agencies including the Department of Environment and National Resources (DENR), the Department of Agriculture (DA), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), and the Department of Science and Technology (DoST) among others.

International Labor Organization (ILO) Manila Consultant Gwyneth Anne Palmos said that the organization is also helping the CCC regarding polishing the guidelines.

“The plan is to pilot-test the guidelines so we can see if we can further tweak it so we fully operationalize it,” she told BusinessWorld on Thursday.

Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Board Member and Federation of Free Workers (FFW) Vice president Antonio Isidro C. Asper said green jobs should be part of a company’s corporate vision as opposed to only creating a few projects dedicated to it.

“When companies get involved in environmentally-friendly actions, they should not get involved only once or twice but they should make it part of their corporate operations and objectives,” he said during the BWI summit on Thursday. —