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Growing green skills and jobs in South Africa

It is still early days for South Africa’s green economy, but clears signs are evident of the overall commitment to shift our business-as-usual economy towards a low-carbon, resource efficient, resilient and inclusive sustainable economy.

This transformative economy has the potential to create large numbers of green jobs and at the same time reduce negative environmental and social impacts.

Green jobs can be found in sustainability-related career fields that encompass a wide range of skills, educational backgrounds, and occupational profiles.

In South Africa, a forward thinking Green Jobs research study conducted by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), Development Bank South Africa (DBSA) and Trade Industrial Policy Strategies (TPS) during 2011 estimated direct employment of 98,000 jobs in the short term (2011-2012), 255,000 in the medium term (2013-2017) and 462,000 employment opportunities the long term (2017-2015). These projections are promising for much needed employment to stimulate new green economic growth areas.

Over half of these jobs are envisaged in natural resource management (232,926), with energy generation estimated at 130,023, energy and resource efficiency at 67,977, and emissions and pollution mitigation at 31,642 jobs.

The advantages of these green jobs are that they not only alleviate poverty, but they "contribute directly to preserving or enhancing environmental quality in a sustainable low-carbon economy; protect ecosystems and biodiversity; reduce energy, materials, and water consumption through high efficiency strategies; de-carbonise the economy; and minimise or altogether avoid generation of all forms of waste and pollution" (UNEP, 2009).

However positive this might sound, red flags should be raised around twenty-first century skills training and development which is key to preparing a green-collar workforce ready to meet the demands of the growing green economy.

First and foremost we need to understand the skills needed for good green jobs.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) published a South African study in 2010 that looked at current and future skills requirements for South Africa’s greening economy. Outcomes highlighted caution around current and future skills gaps creating bottlenecks to green growth.

Skills gaps exist across all sectors and are created by market demand. Areas of weakness were limited co-ordination of national policy, training and development programmes, and funding allocations.

A skills audit and training initiative was proposed. By 2011, training programmes were underway in the wind energy and biodiversity sectors where a high demand of sector-specific skills is required.

Green economy policy strategies at national and regional level have gained traction since the 2008 National Framework for Sustainable Development (NFSD). A significant policy breakthrough came early in 2011, when the government adopted a resource-efficient, low-carbon and pro-employment approach as one of the key drivers of our economic growth path.

The New Growth Path prioritises employment creation efforts and the green economy is recognised as one these. The NFSD was strengthened when the National Strategy for Sustainable Development and Action Plan was approved by cabinet. The South African White Paper on national climate policy published in 2011 is also seen as an important step in advancing the country’s commitment to combating climate change.

Several additional initiatives were also launched pre-COP17 by the business sector, government, NGOs, civil society, academia and other key role players to address sustainability.

The National Development Plan (NDP), supported by the New Growth Plan (NGP), is taking measures to adapt to the low-carbon economy by coupling fiscal sustainability with national development to ensure that progress made will not be interrupted or reversed. The NGP lists the green economy under job driver 3: "Seizing the potential of new economies".

Funding is a fundamental mechanism that flows out of policy commitments. Sources of funding are available through the Green Fund that supports green business development and in addition provides support for research and development.

The fund responds to market weaknesses currently hampering South Africa’s transition to a green economy by:

• promoting innovative and high impact green programmes and projects reinforcing climate policy objectives through green interventions;
• building an evidence base for the expansion of the green economy;
• attracting additional resources to support South Africa’s green economy development.

R800m was allocated in round one for low-carbon projects in the start-up phase and additional R300m is projected for the similar projects to be included in the follow-up phase. Government also recognises the importance of the research community playing a catalytic role in building knowledge for the green economy. R34m has been allocated so far for research and policy development that universities, government-affiliated institutions, private companies, NGOs and other interested parties could access.

Other funding sources have also been made available for skills development programmes including the Groen Sebenza project. This initiative of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) in partnership with 33 organisations from government, NGOs and the private sector received R300m from the Jobs Fund during 2011 to develop skills in the biodiversity sector to create job opportunities for 800 unemployed graduates and matriculants.
 
GreenCape, a Sector Development Agency of the Western Cape Provincial Government and the City of Cape Town, was one of the first in the renewable energy sector to follow up on the ILO’s skills audit and training recommendations during 2012. In a collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) a study was conducted through the South Africa-Germany Energy Programme (Sagen) to assess skills needed for the emerging wind industry in South Africa.

A skills curriculum was developed to train qualified wind turbine service technicians, operational and maintenance staff working on the first installations of renewable energy projects. The training is provided at the new South African Renewable Energy Technology Centre, a national centre for renewable energy training and education located at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

South Africa has the necessary research, policy and funding mechanisms to reach the promising job creation potential that the green economy offers.

However, further integration of efforts nationally and regionally as well as greater investment in human capital i,e. skills development have to be prioritised to fully realise this potential.