Harnessing employment policy for climate action

Over recent years, recognition of the relationship between climate change, environmental sustainability, and employment has deepened. Policymakers increasingly understand that meeting the Paris Agreement targets, delivering on Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and ensuring resilience to climate risks — particularly for low- and middle-income countries countries —must go hand-in-hand with strategies for decent work and social justice. 

At the same time, inequalities within and between countries risk being aggravated if transitions are not managed fairly. Employment policies therefore play a central role in ensuring that climate action supports inclusive growth and a just transition. 

How to link climate change and just transitions with employment policies? 

The ILO’s Guidelines for shaping employment policies that support a green recovery and a just transition highlights two complementary dimensions: 

• Integrating employment aspects into national climate change and just transition strategies 
  Countries reporting under the Paris Agreement through their NDCs, as well as other climate and environmental policies, increasingly need to embed employment objectives, ensuring that climate actions contribute to job creation, poverty reduction, and resilience. 
• Shaping employment policies for climate action 
  Employment policies—macroeconomic, sectoral, labour market, and social protection measures—can be designed to advance both climate goals and decent work. 

Over the past decade, more employment policies have begun to address how climate change and the transition to a low-carbon economy reshape labour markets. To be effective, climate challenges and solutions must be integrated from the design stage of employment policies, supported by diagnostic tools such as the Green Employment Diagnostics for a Just Transition and robust monitoring frameworks from the Handbook on measuring green jobs and skills for green jobs. Based on these analyses, governments can identify targeted policy measures across macroeconomic, sectoral, labour market, and social protection domains. 

Figure. Alignment and synergies between climate and environmental action and employment policies

A growing number of dedicated green jobs strategies and plans now articulate these links with other policies, drawing inspiration from international experiences captured in the Compendium of promising practices for the promotion of jobs and skills for a green economy. Central to all approaches is the need to sustain social dialogue, with workers’ and employers’ organizations actively engaged throughout the policy process to ensure ownership and deliver pragmatic, “real-economy” measures for a just transition. 

Partnerships and initiatives 

Social dialogue and partnership are at the heart of effective green transitions. The ILO works with initiatives such as the  

• UN Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE)
• The Global Accelerator on Jobs and Social Protection 
• Global Coalition for Social Justice
• Programmes supported by partners such as GIZ and BMZ