Argentina generates Synergies between the Private and Public Sectors

The Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Kelly Olmos, the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, the Secretary of Labour, Leonardo Di Pietro and the Secretary for Climate Change, Cecilia Nicolini, participated in the meeting – “Agreement for Climate Action. Public-private platform for sustainable development”. Juan Ignacio de Mendiguren, Secretary for Industry and Productive Development; Claudio Tomasi, Resident Representative of UNDP Argentina, and Joaquín Etorena, PAGE National Coordinator also attended the event.

The Minister of Labour stressed: “The employment policies that we design and carry out are so that all the most vulnerable groups have the opportunity to overcome the limits of their conditions of origin, or even the limits that they have had to endure from the educational point of view, and that they can resolve them through permanent training or retraining, so that they can join the new jobs, the new technological challenges, such as those implied by this situation of climate change”.

“We need to build an agenda in which environment and development go hand in hand. The defense of life, the environment and development have to be central values in the construction of our society. We have a responsibility to make the environmental agenda part of the fundamental public policies when it comes to governing”, said the Minister of Economy.

Secretary Nicolini welcomed the formalised commitment with the private sector to “invest in the new decarbonised, sovereign economy, with more jobs, that we need”, and remarked that climate action is an agenda where “Argentina has everything to gain”, according to the government’s communication.

Following the opening, the Green Employment Advisory Council brought together representatives of various government agencies, the employer sector, trade unions, academia, and different sectoral chambers in an expanded tripartite forum to discuss and agree on actions to promote green jobs.

In this context, the Secretary of Labour, Leonardo Di Pietro indicated that there are around 790,000 green jobs registered in the country.  Victoria Castillo, a member of the Under-Secretariat of Planning, Studies and Statistics of the Ministry of Labour presented the results of the green jobs report in Argentina and the methodology.

Of the 956 branches of economic activities classified, 73 are totally green, such as bicycle manufacturing, non-traditional energy generation (solar, wind), rail and passenger transport, excluding air transport, among others. Then, there are 47 branches that are partially green (such as the sanitation and waste sector, experimental research and development or machinery manufacturing). In addition, they found 4 797 firms in non-green sectors with environmental certifications.

In 2022, there were 778 900 registered green jobs, representing 12 per cent of total employment in Argentina. Green employment grew by four per cent between 2021 and 2022, one percentage point less than total employment. Only 16 per cent of green jobs are held by women, the rest by men. However, women’s green employment grew much more, Castillo said.

In terms of age, the distribution of employment in general is replicated: “More than half of green employment is concentrated in workers between 25 and 35 years of age, and people between 18 and 24 years of age account for the dynamism, because this segment grew by 18 per cent,” she explained.

This event reflected a breakthrough for the green economy and the just transition in Argentina – thanks to the contribution of PAGE Argentina, ILO and the Strategic Affairs Secretariat of UN Argentina.

The event registered around 1000 participants. It included representatives of around 700 companies, SMEs, sectoral chambers, trade unions and environmental organisations, together with representatives of the United Nations.

The meeting, titled “Agreement for Climate Action Public-Private Platform for Sustainable Development”, took place within the framework of the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE) and the Agreement for Climate Action.

Launched in 2022, the Climate Action Agreement is a platform for exchange and continuous training to articulate initiatives between the public and private sectors.

The Green Employment Advisory Council, led by the Ministry of Labour, was created with the framework of PAGE.

The partnership brings together five United Nations agencies; UNEP, UNDP, ILO, UNIDO, and UNITAR, whose expertise and support assist and lead partner countries towards their transition to an Inclusive Green Economy (IGE) by providing policy advice, assessments, capacity building and analytical tools outputs. Argentina joined PAGE in 2018.

Through this initiative, the national government has promoted its Green Jobs Programme, policies that contribute to the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, and a framework for non-financial reporting to improve the competitiveness of enterprises.

Sources: ILO news, Government of Argentina press release, Government of Argentina press release