Environmental catastrophes and forecasts of climate change implications illustrate the risks that are evoked by resource-intensive and environmentally harmful economic models. This is why a transition towards “green growth” is increasingly called for. Environmental technologies are being seen as the motor for an environmentally friendly and sustainable economy. With the due willingness to invest, positive growth and employment effects can be generated so that climate and environment protection do not necessarily have to lead to economic stagnation or loss of jobs. However, political incentives for investments in environment-friendly technologies are crucial in this regard.

The Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation (FES) is seeking to explore the potentials of “green labor markets” in selected Asian countries (China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam). Main objective is to develop industrial and economic policy recommendations that can contribute to the generation of jobs in resource-efficient and environment-friendly sectors. It does so by conducting in-depth case studies of the potentials of and prospects for green jobs in the mentioned countries.

The Environmental Policy Research Centre (FFU) supports the project with its expertise in the field of “Green Economy”. Specifically, it supports the preparation of the country studies, summarizes and compares their main results so as to develop policy recommendations for the region as a whole, and prepares a comparable case study on “The German energy transition and its implications for green jobs”. In collaboration with the FES it will also organize a regional conference in Jakarta in March 2012. There the main results of the studies will be discussed and evaluated.