Distinguished Vice President,
Excellencies,
Colleagues and friends,

It is a pleasure to join you today at this pioneering panel discussion on climate change actions and the right to work.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on people’s health, lives and the enjoyment of fundamental human rights, including the right to decent work.

Due to the pandemic, more than 350 million jobs have been lost. The number of extremely poor people increased by between 119 million and 124 million in 2020 alone. These are ILO numbers. As a result, world hunger is rising again with approximately 820 million people suffering from hunger and 2 billion being food insecure.

Access to health care, work, education, housing and other essential services, already inadequate prior to the pandemic, have been seriously compromised. Pre-existing gaps in social protection and inadequate benefits have contributed to exacerbating deep-seated inequalities, with informal workers, most of them women, often excluded from protection. The COVID-19 crisis has led to an estimated drop of 60 per cent in the income of informal workers around the world.

The ongoing climate crisis, an existential threat for us all, compounded by the unprecedented recession caused by the pandemic, calls for urgent action to transition towards green, sustainable and inclusive economies that will transform the world of work.

States’ measures to protect the environment and climate would create new jobs in clean and renewable energy, such as wind and solar energy production, while eliminating others, for example those in the coal, gas and oil industries.

The transition towards green economies is challenging. It is fundamental that we protect workers from unemployment during this transition; that we indeed shape the world of work with laws and policies that uphold international human rights standards and give sufficient attention to economic, social and cultural rights.

Investing in public sectors and uplifting those who have been marginalised should become an urgent priority. In this context, education plays a vital role in achieving decent work for all. States should invest more decisively in people’s right to education, including life-long learning. They need to scale up solutions for experimental and practical learning; develop inclusive vocational training based on labour market demand, with an emphasis on climate responsive technologies; and establish public-private sector partnerships for apprenticeship.

Excellencies,

Women play a critical role in the economy, and their contributions are often either not recognized or ignored with the global gender pay gap estimated to be about 23 per cent globally.

Guaranteeing women’s rights and ensuring their meaningful participation is therefore key to sustainable transitions and a just future of work.

Currently, 740 million women make their living in the informal economy.

Transitioning away from extractive practices and fossil fuel economies would provide an opportunity, for example, to invest in the care sector, an area where many women work informally with precarious employment and no access to social insurance benefits. This would offer an effective way to uphold women’s right to safe and fair conditions of work, shifting the focus towards collective wellbeing and strengthening economies without increasing emissions.

Furthermore, States should use their maximum available resources to ring-fence budgets to ensure the right to social protection and access to essential services. Social security systems will help to minimise the impact of job losses generated by climate action estimated at 2.7 million, creating access to further education, improving labour market opportunities, and securing access to the rights to health, food, water and sanitation, education and housing.

States should use the recovery from COVID-19 as an opportunity to build back better, to combat climate change and protect workers and communities through policies and measures anchored in human rights.

It is of concern that the current energy crisis has led a number of countries to intensify the exploitation of fossil fuels, rather than accelerate the implementation of renewable energies alongside insistence on greater energy efficiencies across economies and societies.  

It is essential that developed countries and the international donor community, guided by the principle of international cooperation, provide financial and technical support to low-income countries’ actions towards green, sustainable and inclusive economies.

I hope that today’s discussions will also help to inform the upcoming 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference, including by identifying the needs and opportunities for technical assistance and cooperation, such as proper financing for mitigation policies for developing countries.

I encourage States to share challenges, but also experiences and those promising practices that we have developed in strengthening the protection of the right to work in the transition towards a green economy.

I look forward to hearing your concrete recommendations.

Thank you very much, Vice President