This research aims to investigate how the green economy can create new job opportunities, therefore defining some future social scenarios in Italy. The reason for which the green economy can create new employment for future generations is due to the use of new ecological and non-pollutant technologies that have been created and that will be furtherly developed in the near future.
The reason for which Italy has been chosen for this research is because it is one of the most developed countries in this sector and has already started to create innovative working scenarios for people that have proved to have the right skills. Indeed, the green economy can’t produce at the moment new job opportunities for present generations as they have not yet developed the appropriate skills to use them at their full potential. Italy has the chance to promote, throughout the green economy, an advanced and ecological economy, that won’t benefit merely Italy’s pollution, but, overall, the country’s whole well-being.
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Economists and sociologists may draw some future outlook: the green economy will progressively substitute ‘old’ and ‘antique’ jobs with more advanced and efficient jobs. This does not mean an immediate decrease in unemployment or an increase in Italy’s GDP, it firstly just creates a shift in the demand and supply of green jobs. But in the upcoming mid and long term, the green economy should drive solid growth trends if correctly incentivized by the government, therefore ensuring to Italy a more ecological future.
Green Economy
The green economy, as stated from the United Nations, has no real definition: “There is no internationally agreed definition of the green economy and at least eight separate definitions were identified in recent publications”. The UNEP has defined the green economy as “one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. It is low carbon, resource efficient, and socially inclusive”, while the Green Economy Coalition defined it as “a resilient economy that provides a better quality of life for all within the ecological limits of the planet”. The green economy can thereby be defined as an economy that aims to increase human well-being meanwhile reducing environmental risks and respecting the ecological limits of the planet.
Analysis
The first data is collected from Green Alliance’s study on how the circular economy could affect unemployment in Italy, Poland and Germany by 2030.
The circular economy is a subset of the green economy: the green economy focuses from waste management to increasing human well-being, while the circular economy focuses mainly on waste management, waste prevention and resource efficiency. The latter not only includes the correct use of materials and natural resources, but also the correct management of human skills and resources, trying to reduce unemployment by using employer’s full potential and providing them with new job opportunities, suitable for their skills. The circular economy keeps products, parts and materials in the economy for as long as possible, using the least amount of resources. Ideally, this means the direct reuse of products, which preserves both the highly engineered character of a product and its useful function.
Green Alliances’s study outlines how a growth in the circular economy could create more jobs in the bioeconomy, recycling, repairing and, the most important, at the base of the circular economy, remanufacturing. This eager plan could give work to at least 270,000 unemployed people in Poland, Germany and Italy, saving at least €3 billion in unemployment costs: this is because jobs related with the circular economy, known as green jobs, are predicted exist also after 2025.
In particular, for Italy, Green Alliaces’s focus is on how an ambitious circular economy policy could double circular bioeconomy activity in Italy, revitalizing its southern agricultural economy and reducing the north-south unemployment divide, with two thirds of all net jobs created in the south and island regions.
It was argued that the green economy could create new jobs for future generations in Italy. It showed how the economy is progressing with no new initiatives: there are 35000 gross jobs, the largest employment increase is in the islands by 0.22% and in plant and machine operators and assemblers by 0.20% and there has been a reduction in unemployment costs by €0.15bn. It also explained the second situation with current growth rates: there would be 220,000 gross jobs, a 0.58% decrease in unemployment in the south and a 1.45% increase in trades and related occupations and a reduction in unemployment costs of €0.75 billion. The final scenario explained and demonstrated how the green economy could create new jobs: there would be 541,000 gross jobs, a 1.26% drop in unemployment in the south, and the biggest occupational unemployment fall will be of 3.38% in craft and related trades and a reduction of €1.69bn in unemployment costs. The third scenery also argues that 92% of the jobs available due to the green economy will be future proof, that the bioeconomy in Italy will expand massively and that inequality will be reduced.
Italy’s unemployment is above the EU average, at 12.7 percent, although the spread of unemployment rates between the north and south is vast, with the south having some of the highest in Europe, at 20.4 percent, and the island regions on 21.2 percent, while the north east is at 7.7 percent. Occupational mismatch is also significant, spanning 3.97 percent for professionals to 20.06 percent in elementary occupations.
Bioeconomy
The bioeconomy comprises those parts of the economy that use renewable biological resources from land and sea – such as crops, forests, fish, animals and micro-organisms – to produce food, materials and energy. Europe is setting course for a resource-efficient and sustainable economy. The goal is a more innovative and low-emissions economy, reconciling demands for sustainable agriculture and fisheries, food security, and the sustainable use of renewable biological resources for industrial purposes, while ensuring biodiversity and environmental protection. To achieve this, the European Commission has set a bioeconomy strategy and action plan which focuses on three key aspects: developing new technologies and processes for the bioeconomy; developing markets and competitiveness in bioeconomy sectors; pushing policymakers and stakeholders to work more closely together. Moreover, the Commission works on ensuring a coherent approach to the bioeconomy through different programs and instruments. The innovative bioeconomy is an important source of new jobs – especially at local and regional level, and in rural and coastal areas – and there are big opportunities for the growth of new markets, for example in bio-fuels, food and bio-based products.
One of the best opportunities for Italy is in the bioeconomy. Italy could build on its large process manufacturing sector, which is the second largest in Europe after Germany. This type of manufacturing involves the food, beverage, chemical, pharmaceutical, consumer packaged goods and biotechnology industries.
Italy has a large and successful agricultural sector focusing particularly on grapes, olives and citrus fruits, as well as grains. The sector produces nine million tons of waste annually and 20 million tons of crop residues, which could find valuable reuse opportunities in composting, anaerobic digestion and, eventually, bio refining. Already, Italy has 240 compost plants and 43 anaerobic digestion plants, together employing more than 2,600 people and processing 5.6 million tons of waste annually. By 2030 bioeconomy activity in Italy could grow well above the rate of scenario 3. Moreover, current circular bioeconomy activity takes place disproportionately in the north of the country: only 22 percent of anaerobic and composting facilities are located in the south or island regions, even though these regions contain around half of Italy’s agricultural land. The imbalance of waste supply suggests additional composting and anaerobic plants are likely to be built in the south. The high unemployment rates in Italy’s south and island regions provide the right conditions for an expansion of this industry to have a positive impact on the labor market, reducing unemployment rather than displacing people from existing jobs. Even more value can be captured through the opportunities in bioplastics. Italy’s bioplastics industry had a turnover of €370 million in 2012 and further growth would provide regionally dispersed jobs in higher skilled occupations.
Green Jobs
Green jobs are decent jobs that contribute to preserve or restore the environment, be they in traditional sectors such as manufacturing and construction, or in new, emerging green sectors such as renewable energy and energy efficiency. At the enterprise level, green jobs can produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment, for example green buildings or clean transportation. However, these green outputs (products and services) are not always based on green production processes and technologies. Therefore, green jobs can also be distinguished by their contribution to more environmentally friendly processes. For example, green jobs can reduce water consumption or improve recycling systems. Yet, green jobs defined through production processes do not necessarily produce environmental goods or services.
In Italy there has been the concept awareness of the circular economy and the opportunities connected to it. Some examples of this increasing awareness are described in the essay ‘100 Italian Circular Economy Stories’, in which there are listed the best practices used in large firms, in small and medium firms, from the local authorities and from society. Important events are taking place at national level. The EU is providing further support in this area through, for example, the FORCE project funded by the European Union, aimed at encouraging cities to work together to promote the circular economy. This project involves the city of Genoa, which is hiring a prominent role in the issue of wood waste. The Restarter project of 2018 encourages the creation of a circular economy for second-hand clothes.
Given this information it can be argued that Italy has the possibility to create new job opportunities for future generations in Italy and, if it follows the predictions, it can increase potential employment and, overall, increase Italy’s GDP and national well-being, reducing inequality and increasing standards of living.
Conclusions
What would we like Italy to be in the next decade as far as the green economy and sustainability are concerned? Some studies have outlined some key target areas that need to be addressed and furtherly implemented, and new jobs numbers have been outlined as well:
- Promote green building practices: apply major renovations in existing homes, schools, offices aiming at very low or passive energy consumption (130000 new jobs).
- Promote the production and use of renewable energy: fulfill electricity demand using renewable sources, thermal energy and bio-fuels and phase out from carbon-based sources (312000 new jobs).
- Incentivize the circular economy: produce less waste, extend product lifetime, repair products whenever possible, recycle waste, reuse waste whenever possible (149000 new jobs).
- Promote sustainable urban life: past styles of life and mobility are too much polluting and should evolve into efficient low impact public transportation within newly designed cities and social environments (111000 new jobs).
These scenarios look very appealing to fit into social issues Italy is facing today: percentage of unemployment is still too high and economic growth is proven at the last ranking within all EU countries.
Of course, these changes will not happen easily. All of the above will never be developed without a strong mid- and long-term investment policy. While this huge effort is responsibility of our government, we also need to help these achievements with our many little daily actions, keeping in mind these upcoming targets, and being knowledgeable about the next sustainability challenges.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said: “There can be no plan B because there is no planet B, both science and economics tell us that we need to change our course very soon”.
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