United Nations Industrial Development Organization
Abstract: By now, most countries have recognized the salience of transitioning towards more sustainable modes of production and consumption. Many have also taken concrete steps towards greening the economy and increasing environmental awareness. Such actions have been shown to have a positive effect on job creation, which is an essential co-benefit of the green transformation especially for developing countries. To enable and support this process, appropriate skills (i.e. green skills) are needed to develop and use green technologies in various sectors. This report focuses specifically on explaining the relevance of skills to enable the green transformation in the industrial sector, understood broadly to comprise not only manufacturing but also other productive sectors (such as construction, transportation and agriculture). In particular, it examines what upcoming trends in greening the industry in developing countries imply for the necessary skills, what kind of skills and competencies are expected to play a role in greening the industry, and what interventions may be necessary to develop such skills. Lastly, drawing on experiences with such interventions in developing countries, it highlights what the pre-requisites are for implementing effective skill development programs and for scaling them up. While green employment creation programs have been discussed elsewhere, this report focuses on necessary interventions to improve existing green skills and/or to develop new skills in order to meet the demand created by greening the economy also in the context of other major transformations, such as digitalization.