Climate action in cities can offer third more jobs

27 / 10 / 2024

By Marwa Nassar - -

Delaying climate action could see 20% gross domestic product losses by 2100
Green jobs across range of sectors currently constitute about 10% of total employment

Climate action in cities can offer a third more jobs compared to a business-as-usual approach. If done well, it can also create better, stronger, safer, and healthier opportunities for workers.

But the challenge is intensified by rising job informality, increasing urban inequalities and rising youth unemployment particularly in Global South cities. These megatrends are widening the gap between the workforce and the training, opportunity and other support they need to access good, green jobs, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Delaying climate action could see 20% gross domestic product losses by 2100 impacting businesses and local economies, making it no small matter for businesses and communities.

Fortunately, investment does pay off. C40’s recent green job analysis carried out with the Circle Economy Foundation shows green jobs across a range of sectors currently constitute approximately 10% of total employment throughout five global regions and 74 megacities.

Thanks to efforts over recent decades to shift ways of producing and consuming, more than a quarter of the jobs in the cities in key sectors such as water supply, sewage, waste management, transportation and storage, and construction can be considered green or contribute to green sectors.

Many of these sectors are critical for the green transition but also offer significant potential for further growth and are well-placed to diversify their workforces, enabling new entrants with the proper policy support.

For example, Latin America’s high urbanization drives a strong demand in the transportation sector. The sector employs over 1.5 million workers within C40 Latin American cities, currently featuring over 30% green jobs and offering significant opportunities for future growth.

In African cities, the disproportionate youth unemployment rate and enormous opportunity to deliver on climate goals have spurred prominent mayors to urgently call for investment in urban climate projects that provide for young people and their futures.

To bridge the skills and opportunity gap, city leaders from Accra to Freetown are looking at the challenges young people face gaining skills, working in particular with the informal sector that represents up to nearly 80% of the working population in many African cities.

In Accra, the single sector that generates the biggest greenhouse gas emissions is methane emissions from waste. The city government is working with local informal workers associations operating in the waste sector on recycling skills and practices, social protection and funding, ultimately getting more plastic and other materials out of landfill and delivering better jobs that support a growing green industry in the city.

While every business has an opportunity to contribute to climate action, every business is different.

Cities recognize that businesses need a trusted partner to connect the dots. They can use their purchasing power to support local market development, offer targeted incentives such as tax deductions or wage subsidies to small and medium-sized enterprises for creating well-paid, inclusive green jobs and support businesses where they need support to address skills gaps.

Businesses can go further when cities can connect them with educational institutions, community organizations and unions, and other businesses, facilitating training, supportive labour policies, apprenticeships, and more to address skills gaps.

In other words, a generational opportunity to achieve climate goals and offer opportunities for all takes everyone.