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From: Thomson Reuters Foundation
From: Thomson Reuters Foundation
From: Thomson Reuters Foundation
From: Thomson Reuters Foundation
By Beh Lih Yi
KUALA LUMPUR, 28 October (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A Singapore-based company that leverages the developing call for environmental careers in Asia expects it to be the link with “important” jobs as countries try to revive the economies most affected by the coronavirus pandemic. .
The “Green Collar” portal, which lists renewable energy work in agriculture and climate change, is announced as the first such initiative in Southeast Asia, a disaster-prone region that is in danger of floods or typhoons.
It began when co-founder Heng Li Seng, who runs a social enterprise in Singapore on waste relief and coastal cleanup since 2017, began receiving an increasing number of consultations on work similar to sustainable development.
When Singapore’s trade-dependent economy sank into recession in July, forcing some companies to eliminate jobs, he thought it was time to act.
“Many other people are wasting their jobs and we think that if we look for other people to find work, they couldn’t be the same jobs as usual,” the 32-year-old told the Thomson Reuters Foundation over the phone.
“These will have to be the long-term tasks that will provide an opportunity for significant long-term impact,” Heng said, adding that he hoped the initiative would fill the lack of data for task seekers.
Lately, the portal has about 250 classified ads in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and plans to offer task opportunities in other parts of the region.
Although classified ads are loose right now, Heng said he is contemplating eventually charging.
“Putting (green jobs) on a separate portal increases the chance that those jobs will be covered through qualified people,” Heng said.
“By ordering those jobs in an obviously spelled out way, we are also helping corporations get started with what it takes to play a sustainable role, as some corporations turn to their peers,” he added.
Demand has been driven through countries around the world that have committed to so-called green recovery, with stimulus measures aimed at revitalizing their coronavirus-affected economies and fighting climate change at the same time.
Prior to the pandemic, the United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) predicted that 14. 2 million green jobs could be created in Asia by 2030 if the region continued measures to curb global warming, such as expanding the use of renewable energy or electric vehicles.
Singapore said in August that it would create 55,000 green jobs over the next decade in the surrounding sectors and agriculture, while South Korea pledged in July to spend $95 billion on green projects to stimulate the economy.
“It is encouraging that governments, regions and local governments in Asia and the Pacific have begun to talk and adopt green stimulus programmes,” said Cristina Martínez of the ILO in Bangkok.
She called for more investment in creating ecological tasks, saying that COVID-19’s “devastating effects” showed the possibility of a climate emergency and corporations’ desire to invest in greener developments.
“The creation of ecological tasks will be done automatically, but it will be through design,” said Martinez, an expert in the environment and decent work.
(Report via Beh Lih Yi @behlihyi; Posted through Belinda Goldsmith Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Thomson Reuters’ charitable arm, which covers the lives of others around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. www. / newsArraytrust. org)