Climate Action Must Mean Labour Market Action

This article is authored by Bettina Schaller, SVP Head Group Public Affairs at The Adecco Group, and Karin Reiter, SVP Sustainability & ESG at The Adecco Group.

This week government leaders come together in Sharm Al-Sheik, Egypt for the UN Climate Conference (COP27) to discuss climate change. It’s clear that more needs to be done to limit global temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. As governments report and discuss their respective progress, one major task is still outstanding: building the Human Capital to drive innovation and ensure a just transition.

The Adecco Group analysed the National Climate Action updates of the 20 biggest economies (G20). The results, which were published in our Climate Action Must Be Labour Market Action Whitepaper, show that only a handful of G20 countries put skilling and activation policies at the heart of their Green Transition plans. This is a missed opportunity - and poses significant risk. The transition to a more sustainable economy relies on innovation and technological process, delivered and implemented by people. At the same time, we need to ensure that people most impacted are not left behind.

The Human Capital Agenda

The Adecco Group calls for the central positioning of a Human Capital Agenda that ensures that people can access training and career guidance support throughout their working lives, especially the people in sectors and jobs most exposed to climate disruption and transformation. We all have a responsibility to ensure the measures to mitigate climate change maintain the perspective for decent work and livelihoods. A coordinated Human Capital Agenda will also allow existing businesses to transform and new - more sustainable - businesses to tap into talent and scale up.

Governments have a key role to ensure employment and training services are up to par. They need to deliver sustainable employment for all workers. This expressly includes shaping age-neutral work-based learning schemes and incentives like apprenticeships and vocational education and training. Governments need to closely align with the business community to identify skill gaps as well as solutions that allow for an easy (re-)integration of workers into the labour market.

Policy Priorities for COP27

The Adecco Group thus calls upon Governments during and after the COP27 gathering to implement the following policy priorities:

1. Policy makers, in close collaboration with people and businesses, need to ensure that Human Capital -- and, more specifically, skilling -- lies at the heart of their national and international Climate Agenda. All innovation, sectoral transformation, and labour market measures depend on it.                                            ;

2. Skilling infrastructures and Active Labour Market Policies need to focus on skill certification, skill development and -- most importantly -- skill deployment. They need to ensure workers of all ages and walks of life are empowered, motivated, and incentivized to participate in the transition, including those that might have been displaced because of climate disaster. Focused collaboration with the business community for skills development is especially important for sectors in flux.                                     

3. Public finances have a key role to play, as well. Rather than setting up dedicated funding for so-called green initiatives, Governments must strive to integrate the green transition into all of their funding for green transformation as well as for re- and upskilling. Sectors seeking public support for skilling initiatives must be incentivised to also transform the workforce to meet the climate challenge. And, vice versa, parties seeking climate funding need to be incentivized to address the skilling dimension.                          /p>

4. Finally, we need harmonized international metrics. These metrics should track progress, enable solutions and ensure accountability for successful labour market shifts. This can be delivered through streamlined, periodic updates and strategic reviews of NDCs. This underscores the need to prioritize the bottleneck for the Green Transition and inspire Governments and others across the world to significantly accelerate their efforts.

The Adecco Group’s commitment

The Adecco Group is committed to leverage its labour market footprint, expertise, and network to contribute to this Human Capital Agenda. Together with the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) we are hosting Government, Business and Civil Society Leaders at the Business Pavilion of Egypt. We look forward to meet and engage on the role of Employers and Private Employment Services in mitigating the Climate Challenge.