Green Economy and implications for Skills Planning

Climate change has moved from an issue of environmentalconcern to an issue of commercial significance driving agreen economic revolution worldwide

South Africa is vulnerable to climate change scenarios ofincreased frequency and magnitude of extreme events suchas droughts and floods

Environmental problems leading to human vulnerabilityinclude air and water pollution, the deterioration of rivers andland degradation.

South Africa, having one of the most carbon-intensiveeconomies in the world, is no exception .

The economics of climate change is fundamentally an‘externality’ story i.e the potential impacts of climate changeon economies, both positive and negative, are now far-ranging in their scope.

The county’s path to a green economy is therefore a response tothese looming threats also influenced by international agendas thatcall for strategies against climate change.

Government’s vision for the road ahead on climate change is atransition to climate resilient and low-carbon economy.

The ‘New Growth Path’2 strategy classifies the green economy asone of the ten ‘jobs drivers and The ‘Industrial Policy Action Plan’3in turn, encompasses strategic initiatives to develop green industriesand to improve energy efficiencies

The National Development Plan states clearly that there is a need toinvest in skills, technology and institutional capacity to support thedevelopment of a more sustainable society and the transition to alow-carbon economy.

The NPD states that “Focused, institutionalized capacity building andmanagement structures are needed”. This is not likely to bepossible without coherent, co-ordinated and systems oriented greenskills development planning and implementation.

Green Economy: At its most basic level, it refers to a systemof economic activities related to the production, distributionand consumption of goods and services that result inimproved human well being over a long term, while notexposing future generations to significant risks and orecological scarcity.

Green Economy is therefore a shift in the economy as a wholetowards cleaner industries and sectors with lowenvironmental impacts compared to its socio-economicimpact

Green economy is not just about the ability to produce cleanenergy, but also technologies that allow cleaner productionprocesses, as well as the growing market for products whichconsume less energy.

A Green Job is an occupation that i) directly works withpolicies, information, materials, and technologies thatcontribute to minimising environmental impact and ii)requires specialised knowledge, skills, training or experiencein these areas.

Green Organisation is an organisation that provides productsand services that are aimed at utilising resources moreefficiently, providing renewable sources of energy, loweringgreenhouses or minimising environmental impact

The following sectors represent a value of activities of thegreen economy that has been identified i.e R&D,Manufacturing, Distribution, Systems /TechnologiesInstallation, Repairs, Operations and Maintenance

Energy generation, pertains to the generation of energy fromsustainable, renewable and/or alternative sources with low orno carbon emissions;

Energy and resource efficiency, captures, among others,initiatives aimed at reducing energy consumption throughgreen buildings, solar water heaters, industrial equipmentand public transportation;

Emission and pollution mitigation, relates to the utilisation oftechnologies aimed at reducing the harmful emissionsassociated with highly polluting industries, including airpollution control, electric vehicles, cleaner stoves, recycling,carbon capture and storage and water treatment

Green Building and Energy Efficiency comprises of industriesthat are clustered around the purpose of making new andexisting buildings resources efficient and friendly to theenvironment.

Manufacturing group comprises of industries that areclustered around the purpose of making new more efficientproducts and systems, construction of new buildings andretrofiting of existing ones as well as installation and repairof energy efficient equipment.

Transportation & Alternative Fuels group focuses ondeveloping the technology, manufacturing and servicingvehicles that run on alternative fuels and “greening’transportation infrastructure and logistics

Natural resource management, which covers the sustainablemanagement and restoration of natural resources, specificallywater, soil and land, as well as the conservation andrestoration of ecosystems activities pertaining to biodiversityconservation and ecosystem restoration, as well as soil andland management).

Waste, Wastewater & Waste Management area includes thedevelopment and operations of systems, connected withtreatment and conservation of water, recycling of wastewater,and solid waste management

In the past three years, there have been various national attempts toquantify and qualify the Green Skills needs in South Africa, notablythe skills planning and human capital development strategyinitiatives.

While there are very useful, timely and necessary initiatives, theinitiatives are not cohesively targeted, and tend to focus on partialaspects of the system, or on specific skills streams (e.g. high skills).

They are also still inadequate given the scope of the challenges andthe opportunities associated with South Africa’s sustainabledevelopment and climate resilient transition needs.

The challenge of transitioning from the current economy onto agreen economy is a formidable one and requires a national platformfor engagement.

Thus, a green economy will therefore not be brought about bypolicies only: it must be taken up by society at large as away/principle guiding the many choices each citizen makes everyday, as well as the big political and economic decisions

Green Skills planning and implementation in South Africa isre-active and not pro-active.

Green Skills planning and implementation is lagging behinddemand, where demand is already established (e.g. scarceskills); and behind future projected demands (e.g. green jobsprojections).

Systems and mechanisms structuring for green skillsdevelopment are ‘on the back foot’ and need to be fast-tracked and up-scaled.

There is need for a holistic, integrated approach to skillsystem development to address learning pathways for GreenSkills (many of which are ‘new’, and/or neglected)

Bridging initiatives are needed to address system-basedissues of neglect; and to shift from re-active to pro-activeapproaches to skills development that also take the ‘futuresoriented’ nature of green skills development and planninginto account (e.g. skills for an emerging climate resilient /green growth pathway).

Underpinning this is a need to ‘build capacity to buildcapacity’ i.e. to invest in skills system development capacitywhich includes human capital development andenvironmental education and training skills at a high level, aswell as associated research skills.

CATTHSSETA recently started a research partnership withRhodes University to develop some of these HCD skills, butdemand outstrips current capacity for provisioning).

There is general agreement that Green Skills development inSouth Africa is characterized by the following demands.

There are clearly identified scarce skill areas; some are relativelybroad, especially related to environmental engineering,environmental sciences, environmental economists.

There is a high demand for, and scarcity of environmentaltechnical skills (intermediate skill level) for critical delivery anddevelopment areas such as water quality management;biodiversity technicians; general environmental technicians; andenergy technicians.

There are new projected green jobs possibilities in key sectorsincluding energy (renewables); energy efficiency; naturalresource management; and pollution control.

Skills planning for projected green jobs within a ‘futuresoriented’ green economy is not taking place with adequaterigour and careful analysis of future labour market demands.

Green Skills demand is not only for new green skills for theprojected and emerging new green jobs, but also involves re-skilling or upskilling of existing staff, This has significantimplications for public sector skills development initiativesand planning.

There is potential to create new demand pipelines for greenskills, Further research into demand creation is needed

All indications are that South Africa is not adequatelyprepared to seize the above opportunities and meet thedemands for green skills.

Supply platforms for Green Skills are inadequate, particularlyin relation to lower and intermediate level skills; lacking inalternative learning pathways; inadequate inconceptualization and scope; and lacking in broad-basedimpact

Qualifications for Green Skills learning pathways are skewed towardshigh skills - most environmentally oriented qualifications currentlyexist at level 7, 8 and 9 on the NQF.

There is an almost total absence of intermediate level qualificationsor learning pathways for Green Skills development in the country,which significantly narrows the possibilities for youth developmentas it affects learning pathways, including technical learningpathways and especially the construction or possibility of ‘secondchance’ pathways for the many students who exit Higher Educationbefore graduating.

While many elementary occupations focus on environmentalpractices (e.g. waste management; community-based recycling etc.

Occupational categories for most environmental occupations areeither a) missing on the Organising Framework for Occupations(OFO); b) inadequately differentiated; c) lacking in coherence; d) orlacking in coherent progression pathways and possibilities

This ongoing ‘invisibility’ and ‘neglect’ in the national systemof skills development partly explains why virtually all greenskills planning has taken place outside of the core systems ofskills planning, such as SETA Sector Skills Plans.

Associated supply side platforms such as workplace skillsplanning instruments lack adequate Green Skillsdifferentiation per sector and workplace demand.

The sector lacks an adequate range of professional bodiesand is therefore unable to participate in the current system ofQCTO based qualifications development processes

The skills planning initiatives that have occurred since 2010 -outlined above - have been variously funded –by theDepartment of Environmental Affairs (DEA), the South AfricanNational Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) funding partnershipwith the Lewis Foundation, the Water Research Commission(WRC), the Department of Science and Technology (DST) theDepartment of Water Affairs (DWA), the Development Bank ofSouthern Africa (DBSA) and some by GIZ.

However, most of the funding has gone into skills planning,not implementation. Implementation funding is emerging as akey challenge.

The Environmental Sector Skills Plan of South Africa and theassociated Biodiversity Human Capital Development Strategyhas introduced a system-based approach to skills planningand funding implementation programmes.

In particular, more adequate implementation funding tosupport the innovative and systemic forms of skills planningthat has been taking place needs to be secured.

To address this situation there is a need for a coordinatedinitiative, with realistic and enabling funding to:

Synthesise existing analyses, and undertake new labourmarket studies to a) accurately profile the sector’semployment potential and thus b) its labour market demands[and avoid further duplication of effort]

Synthesise existing initiatives and better coordinate supplyside approaches and interventions, to target scarce skillsareas and new skills areas [e.g. for the low carbon growthpath] more effectively.

As noted above, few SETAs are currently strongly involved inGreen Skills support.

There is a need to undertake system-based research toexplore occupationally directed learning pathways that couldevolve into rural green economy possibilities.

Address the gap in the provisioning of intermediate leveltechnical skills for the environmental sector via: FET collegeinterventions (including setting up new FET college trainingstreams for Green Economy occupations; training of lecturers;and curriculum development); SETA interventions; andUniversity of Technology programmes

Develop a cohesive approach and methodology for humancapital development strategies and skills planning.

Cohesiveness within skills planning will strengthen andimprove national data and skills intelligence for the sector,and reduce duplication of efforts.

Undertake research to quantify and qualify occupationallydirected learning pathways into the green economy fromwithin different sub-sectors.

Undertake ongoing research to strengthen skills intelligenceacross the environmental sector, giving specific attention tosub-sector demands, but without re-inventing the wheel orduplicating efforts.

Assist with the establishment of a broader range ofprofessional bodies and greater skills development capacityto participate in the occupationally directed qualifications andtraining processes that are currently underway, to avoid greenskills being ‘neglected’ in this process due to lack ofparticipation capacity

Establish a coordination mechanism [e.g. a dedicated crosssectoral unit] that can drive the green skills planning processforward to make the transition from re-active system to pro-active skills planning and development system.

Such a unit should be able to co-ordinate and also provideskills planning and development services to the sector as awhole and it its differentiated sub-sectors (e.g. waste, water,biodiversity, climate change etc.). Much more needs to bedone to make the transition effective.

Thomas MathibaDepartment of Environmental AffairsChair: Environmental Skills Planning ForumTel: (012) 310-3653tmathiba@environment.gov.za