During the first meeting among Environment and Labour Ministries of the EU, ILO’s General Director, Guy Ryder, claimed that “a transition to a green economy may only be achieved through an active participation of the labour world”

“The world must not choose between employment creation or preserving the environment”, pointed out Ryder. “Environmental sustainability is a duty, particularly in the labour market.”

The gas emission level with greenhouse effect per inhabitant are currently three times over the level tolerable level if a 2 Celsius degrees global warming wants to be avoided by the end of the century.

“EU’s negative labour predictions are correlated to the lowest levels of investment up to this date” states Ryder. “However, an active transition to a greener economy may improve such dark labour and environmental scene.”

For example, several researches estimate that 1% growth of efficiency would create from 100.000 to 200.000 jobs.

Adopting ambitious and adequate measures to create a green economy would seriously promote investments, reduce emissions and generate millions of jobs.

According to ILO, the total global value of the market of environmental technologies, particularly of those related to energy, shall be of 4.400 million euros by 2015.

Ryder pointed out that Europe has put emphasis on the growth of labour productivity for a very long time, instead of focusing on energetic and resources productivity. Over the past 50 years, labour productivity has grown four times its size, while the increase of energetic productivity has been lower than 25%.

As regards the green action plan of the European Commission for small and mediums companies, he assured that the largest part of green technology will be in the hands of such companies.

He also emphasized that those companies, as well as big companies, must face the difficulty of finding workers with the professional skills a green economy demands. This was explained in the first report on green employment performed by ILO in 2008 and later ratified in the world research of professional skills for green employment that ILO and the European Commission did in 2011.

According to the “Build Up Skills” initiative, validated by the EU, by 2020 around 4, 4 million workers will need to upgrade their professional skills on energetic efficiency or renewable energy sources.

ILO considers a priority to face the challenge of preserving the environment and achieving an adequate level of decent employment and social integration, on a global scale.

In 2013, the World Confederation of Labour presented a series of conclusions on sustainable development, decent labour and green employment. These are the political frame or a fair transition towards a greener economy. Ryder urged ministers to apply such frame to create national and regional policies.

Latin America must take note on this subject. Green jobs incite sustainability. It is necessary to train workers on to follow that path.