The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) reported that the transition to a less carbonized economy would generate 2.1 million jobs in Mexico over 10 years.
The study entitled “Employment in a future with zero net emissions in Latin America and the Caribbean”, carried out between the two institutions, indicates that Mexico is among the four countries where the decarbonisation of the economy negatively affects more than 1 per percent of employment, where Brazil, Honduras and Venezuela are also located.
However, the country stands out among the economies where wind and solar energy are cheaper. Public services in Mexico, Peru and Chile acquire these fuels for 3 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), the study indicates.
The ILO and the IDB foresee the creation of 15 million new jobs in Latin America and the Caribbean, by surveying the businesses linked to the exploitation of fossil fuels and the intensive use of the countryside for livestock for the production of cleaner energy and the expansion of agriculture.
The transition would eliminate 7.5 million jobs in the extraction and exploitation of fossil fuels and livestock, but would be offset in agriculture, plant-based food production, renewable energy, forestry, construction, and manufacturing.
To achieve this, countries need to ensure a passage to a “more sustainable economy”, since it is essential that policies are applied that act “towards equality”.
They must also support the workers, companies and communities that will be directly affected by the reduction in size of the industries that are currently the most polluting, with those linked to livestock and fossil fuels.
The ILO estimates that climate change will expel 2,500,000 workers from their occupations, especially in the agricultural, construction and street trade sectors.
For its part, the IDB projects that by 2050, the damages caused by climate change will cost the region $ 100 billion annually.
In this sense, the agencies stressed that “the time has come to create a more inclusive, resilient and sustainable future”, since the current decent work deficit, inequalities and dependence on fossil fuel exports make Latin America and the Caribbean are “particularly susceptible” to the social and economic effects of the current pandemic.
