Malta and Green Growth

Towards green employment

November 11, 2011 - Earlier this week, I led a Green party delegation for a meeting with the new leadership of Union Ħaddiema Magħqudin. It is a pleasure meeting with trade unions and, in the case of the UĦM, we have shared common positions on various issues in the past years. Two important examples are the support of Malta’s EU membership and the call for having sustainable national budgets with strong social and environmental priorities. This can serve as a framework for increased collaboration in the coming years. In this regard, the American example of the Blue-Green Alliance comes to mind, where Greens, unions, employers and NGOs work together for the creation of green jobs.

Green jobs in small states were recently discussed in a seminar organised by AD’s foundation Ceratonia, in collaboration with the Green European Foundation. Various academics presented papers on a myriad of issues related to the subject and these shall be included in a forthcoming publication.

Together with fellow sociologists Maria Brown and Diana Aquilina, I presented a paper during the seminar, which analysed the assessment of Maltese civil society stakeholders with regard to sustainable energy policy in general and green jobs in particular.

Before delving into the findings of our research, it is pertinent to define the term “green jobs”. The most comprehensive definition is that of the United Nations Environment Programme, namely, “work in agricultural, manufacturing, research and development (R&D), administrative and service activities that contribute substantially to preserving or restoring environmental quality”. read more>>>