A study by the advocacy group Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) has shown there that is a great race in the preservation and restoration of the environment. The report titled “forecasting green jobs in Africa”, notes that despite Africa contributing only 3 percent of the global carbon emissions, it holds unique potential to lead in global decarbonization efforts and capitalizing on new green industries. The vast natural resources, renewable energy potential, and the world’s largest rising workforce as evidenced by the median age in Africa, which is 19.2 years, Africa can leapfrog directly to renewable energy, bypassing carbon-intensive infrastructure. The projections from the report shows that Kenya will produce over 240,000 green jobs, of which 110,000 or 40 percent of the green jobs will be solar based. This means that there is need to leverage on the solar uptake and technologies as an effective value chain for more employment and jobs creation. Geothermal is expected to create 22,000 jobs followed by 18,000 from power generation and distribution; 18000 jobs from waste management and remediation; 16,000 from battery storage; 14,200 from electric and two-wheelers; 12,000 from wind; 11,000 from hydro; 7,000 from aquaculture and poultry and 5,900 from charging infrastructure. The 240,000 green jobs projections for Kenya compares to the one to be achieved by Nigeria, while South Africa will generate 275,000 green jobs.
Kenya is projected to create the second highest number of direct green jobs in the continent by 2030, as Ethiopia is projected to create 133,000 green jobs; DRC Congo 47,000 jobs and the rest of the countries in the continent will see a total of 1.04 million jobs created hence 3.23 million green jobs in the continent. South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria combined contributes to 16 percent of all the green jobs projected due to a combination of factors like: population, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and industry maturity. Countries keen to exploit the green jobs opportunities must ensure mechanisms are in place for focused upskilling, including technical training for sectors with the greatest potential for green jobs creation to guarantee an ample pipeline of green talents workers (workers with the skills and knowledge or skills to support environmental and business sustainability) for the green jobs’ creation. Employers can also equip employees with the on-the-job-training opportunities to upskill and ensure high calibre of workers for emerging green jobs. Secondly, there should be persistent, consistent and intentional action from stakeholders, including learning and research institutions, funders, investors, industry players, policy makers and researchers, all of whom should ensure effective skilling and creation of an enabling environment. Dr Giti is an urban management, public – private partnerships (PPP) and environment specialist. mutegigiti@gmail.com , @danielgiti
Dr. Daniel Mutegi Giti 