The Sunday News
Mugove Hamadziripi
THE rhetoric question goes as: What should an envisioned Zimbabwean green economy look like in practice?
For the rest of the world, Zimbabwe included, 2020 has been an immeasurably treacherous period for Governments that have been scrambling to contain the spread of Covid-19 while also managing the economic fallout, supporting workers, as well as keeping children in school.
In the process or moment, the climate crisis shadow is not looming as well as the widening income disparity gap between the rich and the poor. The Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath have simply magnified the challenges countries are facing. Today, countries are facing three giants before them – climate change, rising inequality, and the health and economic impacts of Covid-119. Fortunately, it’s possible to address all three at once, through a just transition to a green economy.
Despite the cloudy atmosphere engulfing the world and Zimbabwe included, there is some good news. The Government can address these challenges before by making the right decisions of transitioning to a greener Zimbabwean economy. An inclusive green economy is one that improves human well-being and builds social equity while reducing environmental risks and scarcities.
An inclusive green economy is an alternative to today’s dominant economic model, which exacerbates inequalities, encourages waste, triggers resource scarcities, and generates widespread threats to the environment and human health.
This drive and notion Zimbabwe for addressing the climate crisis presents a unique opportunity to define the type of economy that works for everyone—not just one that moves away from extractive activities and toward regenerative ones, but also one that is also centred on economic, environmental, and intergenerational justice.
What the greener economy calls for is a sustainable economy—one that, in short, meets the needs of Zimbabweans now, and in the future. It should sustain the natural environment, while ensuring equitable access to environmental goods such as clean air and water; it should also support the people who rely on those goods, by promoting family-sustaining jobs.
It should provide and encourage work that contributes to meeting these goals, and discourage work that doesn’t.
As such, the Government and other parties should formulate and implement National and Regional / Provincial “Green Policies” that would help achieve a sustainable economy, guided by these principles, including but not limited to a green jobs guarantee.
However, the transition to the Green Economy has many hurdles. One challenge being that most Zimbabweans don’t appreciate and understand what constitute a Green Economy, let alone its importance. As such, this independent contribution seeks to provide a framework for understanding what a truly sustainable Zimbabwean economy would look like in terms of employment.
It begins by exploring standard definitions of green jobs, including their historical context, to give an idea of what most people think of when talking about the size of the green economy. It then proposes an expanded definition and framework of green jobs to encompass the principles of equity and sustainability deemed critically important by today’s movement. Finally, it recommends ways in which this expanded definition of green jobs can be integrated into Government policies.
Creating green jobs
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) (2020), the move to low-carbon, greener economies have the potential to generate almost 60 million jobs by 2030. What Are Green Jobs? The idea of what activities are considered green has changed over time, as has the understanding of humans’ relationship with nature. Throughout this history, the notion of what we now refer to as green jobs—work related to sustaining a healthy environment—has expanded to cover a larger and larger portion of the economy. To understand this expansion, there are three waves of environmentalism—conservation, regulation, and equity and investment—to uncover the prevailing ideas about green jobs during those times, and in addition, review how green employment is measured.
But what are the trade-offs should Zimbabwe go the greener route? To inform the decision-making of Governments and businesses, they need the evidence. Research institutions, Non-State Actors, including relevant Government departments should present hard data to show how climate action, and shifting to a green economy, will have overwhelming benefits, and not just for the environment, but also in generating more jobs for Zimbabwe.
To do this, Zimbabwe need to measure, and assess, the environmental, social, and economic implications of climate policies and investments. This should include looking at the data, but also asking the questions – will everyone benefit equally? What would construction of, say, Batoka Hydropower plant or expansion of the Hwange Thermal Power Station mean? Would it create jobs for skilled urban workers or benefit women working in informal economies, including Small and Medium Enterprises? Are the skills, labour and technology to build and run such projects domestically available? What would a transition to 100 percent renewable energy look like for Zimbabwean workers?
As clearly highlighted by the ILO/UNDP (2020), there’s every need to identifying the synergies and trade-offs between climate action and broader development needs, policymakers thereby enhance the positive impacts of recovery packages and lead systemic changes.
Going Forward
An Inclusive Green Economy is an alternative to Zimbabwe’s dominant economic model, which generates widespread environmental and health risks, encourages wasteful consumption and production, drives ecological and resource scarcities and results in inequality. It is an opportunity to advance both sustainability and social equity as functions of a stable and prosperous financial system within the contours of a finite and fragile planet. It is a pathway towards achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, eradicating poverty while safeguarding the ecological thresholds, which underpin human health, well-being, and development.
As awareness about the ecological crisis and climate change has increased in recent years there is growing agreement, on the need to make changes to our Zimbabwean economy. The debate around the green economy will be crucial in determining what kinds of actions Government, companies, communities and individuals take in the future. The key areas of debate are:
Objectives of the economy – Current debates about how we measure growth and prosperity will have enormous ramifications for global trade, production and consumption patterns. Energy – The energy sources we use in the future will be fundamental to how our societies and economies operate. Valuing nature – Ideas about recognising nature’s true value (monetary and/or non-monetary) could revolutionise how we protect the environment safeguarding it for future generations.
However, the following questions will be central to determining the type of Zimbabwean green economy we want to see in the future: Who will shape the Zimbabwean green economy? Will a Zimbabwean green economy mean a trade-off between economic growth and environmental protection? Will the private sector embrace the transition to a green economy? What role should business play? Should public funds be used to leverage private sector participation? Will a green economy reduce poverty and inequality among Zimbabweans? Should renewable energies be centralised or de-centralised? Who will control these energy sources – companies or communities?
Mugove Hamadziripo writes about/ consults on Development, Media, Urbanism, ERP, Communications, Community, Policy / Politics, Sustainability and the Environment. He consults with the Centre for Impact Evaluation and Research Design and Erongo Consulting Group. He can be reached at [email protected], Twitter: @mhamadziripi.
