Going green, but at what cost?

Different shades of green

As the International Labour Organization (ILO) has noted, “green jobs” come in different shades. 

Working on a wind-farm or solar-energy park seem to be obvious examples. But some ‘brown' jobs are essential for these young industries. Is the steel worker who produces the steel for a wind turbine doing a green job? What about the coal-fired power station fitted with carbon capture and storage technology? Many old industries are making some efforts to reduce their carbon footprint. Aircraft and car manufacturers are making more energy-efficient engines, but not everyone would put the internal combustion engine in the vanguard of the green economy.

The ILO also underlines that many “green jobs” are not decent jobs, but can be “dirty, dangerous and difficult”, especially in developing countries. Chinese workers taking scrap metal out of old televisions and computers may be part of the global recycling industry, but exposure to toxic chemicals puts their health at risk.

Eurostat and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development describe environmental goods and services as those that “measure, control, restore, prevent, treat, minimise, research and sensitise environmental damages to air, water, soil as well as problems related to waste, noise, biodiversity and landscapes”.

On the broadest possible measure of the green economy, which includes eco-tourism and organic farming, 8.67 million people in the EU27 have green jobs, equivalent to 6% of the labour force. But a narrower definition covering renewable energy, recycling green construction and air-pollution control, shows that 3.4m work in the ‘eco-industries'.