Policy Research Reports
Green Jobs and the Future of Work in Egypt: A Focus on the Agriculture and Renewable Energy Sectors
No.
SPRR 2023-2
Publisher
ERF and GIZ
Date
June, 2023
Green jobs are defined as decent jobs that help reduce the negative environmental impact; improve energy and raw materials efficiency; limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; minimise waste and pollution; protect and restore ecosystems and support the adaptation to the effects of climate change. Green jobs are driven by green policies and the main source of green employment is links between the economy and the environment. Green jobs offer the potential for a “win-win” solution for inclusive economic growth and job creation as well as sustained human development and well-being. A just transition to green jobs should also be gendered, recognizing that climate change adversaries are not gender neutral.
Egypt is highly vulnerable to climate change, with serious implications on water availability. Water scarcity is already leading to some green practices such as desalination and the reuse of agricultural drainage and treated wastewater. Egypt’s economic and emissions growth are still tightly linked to each other. Taking immediate action can limit the future costs of climate change impacts. Egypt has a constitutional commitment to protect the environment and utilise resources wisely. The country issued its first ever comprehensive National Climate Change Strategy through 2050 in 2022. Climate change pressures have already led to policy change in Egypt, implementing a broad range of climate policies and projects.
This study addresses prospects for green job creation in Egypt, with particular emphasis on the two economic sectors of agriculture and renewable energy. The findings of this study are based on the triangulation of an extensive set of primary and secondary sources. The research process started with a thorough review of the literature. Primary sources included (i) a survey of experts and focus group discussions as part of a Delphi study design to gauge expert views on the impact of climate change and the green transition on jobs in different economic activities (ii) interviews with agribusiness leaders, energy experts, investors, bankers, policymakers and academia to learn about potentials for green job creation in the two sectors of focus.
Expert views collected through the Delphi method were used to extrapolate expected number of jobs gained/lost using data from the Labour Force Survey data of 2017-2021. These results indicate that experts believe that the most negatively affected sectors by climate change include manufacturing, agriculture, accommodation and food services, transportation, and storage activities. Almost all sectors are expected to witness at least a slight increase in employment by virtue of the green transition (with the exception of the transportation and storage sector). The top occupational skills required for employment across all these sectors were also analysed utilising the O*NET skills/abilities/knowledge codes, which showed that green transition particularly requires mechanical, building and construction, design, engineering, mathematics, computers and electronics knowledge, and coordination and operations monitoring skills.
The report shows that there are factors that can accelerate the green transition and the creation of green jobs in the two sectors of agriculture and renewable energy. In agriculture, there is ample evidence of the large adverse impact of climate change on this sector in Egypt and the food production system. The analysis differentiates between potentials for green job creation in the Nile valley (old land) and the reclaimed desert areas (new land). While the old land continues to lose jobs in agriculture in conjunction with land size fragmentation and unsustainable irrigation practices, the new land is more likely to create green jobs adopting modern irrigation systems and climate smart agriculture. In the sector of renewable energy, the factors accelerating the green transition include Egypt’s competitive edge of abundant sunlight and wind energy supply; and the promotion of investments in this sector post the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27).
The analysis shows that there is ample space for a green transition and green job creation in both sectors. In agriculture, the sector is globally becoming a knowledge-intensive field and a green transformation in this field starts with a systemic and well-governed process of knowledge transfer. The analysis discusses potentials for improving the parameters for enabling the business of agriculture (EBA); use of digital technology in marketing and supply chain management; and advancing technologies for climate-smart agriculture. The space for climate change adaptation involves the adoption of multiple technologies related to enhanced seed characteristics; soil fertility management; irrigation management; and crop protection. Digitalization of agriculture remains an untapped opportunity for green job creation in Egypt. Agri-platforms have been used in a number of African countries in support of agriculture trade, with high potential for green job creation. Egypt has a nascent mobile-based advisory service that provides access to agricultural information and allows for some knowledge sharing but at a limited scale. The advent of remote sensing data collection technologies provides ample opportunities to inform and monitor agricultural production and create green jobs. The rampant informality and the low skill base of workers in agriculture remain a challenge for the sector to create green jobs and for its digitalization. Agriculture as a sector of employment is having a diminishing share of the labour force and it needs to attract more talent and investment in order to achieve its potential for green job creation.
In the sector of renewable energy, there is ample space for the Middle East region to enhance job creation in this sector compared to the global experience. The global experience shows that green job growth in this sector is closely related to the strength of the manufacturing sector; the strength of research and development (R&D); and the presence of robust financial support systems. Egypt has already taken steps in removing subsidies for fossil fuel use, which opens the way for further investments in renewable sources. The establishment of funding platforms, such as the Nexus of Water, Food and Energy (NWFE) Programme, can further bolster investment in this direction.
Developing skills for green jobs, as the global experience shows, requires extensive and innovative strategies to proactively anticipate and address emerging skill needs. This requires a comprehensive and sustained coordination mechanism between environmental and skills policies and the outlining of a clear skills response plan. The international experience shows that the enforcement of already adopted environmental regulations accelerates the demand for green skills. Green skills identification and anticipation is still at a nascent ad-hoc stage in Egypt.
The report concludes with a set of recommendations that are divided in three main sections. The general recommendations to enhance the potential for green job creation include enforcing environmental regulations to accelerate the green transition and the demand for green jobs; bolstering coordination mechanisms for skill development and environmental policies; expanding financing opportunities for a green transition in different sectors; and facilitating knowledge transfer on green technologies. Egypt is also well positioned to benefit from debt-for-climate swap financial arrangements. In agriculture, recommendations to expand the opportunities for green job creation involve facilitating knowledge transfer at different levels of the agricultural sector; improving the parameters for Egypt’s EBA; investment in the use of digital technology in marketing and supply chain management; and further investment in advancing technologies for climate-smart agriculture. Recommended policies for the creation of green jobs in the renewable energy sector involve bolstering green energy investments in the manufacturing sector; investment in research and development; and enhancing the availability of funding for small scale providers.
This Special Policy Research Report is an output of a project between the Economic Research Forum (ERF) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on Employment Promotion. It aims to support the generation of information about the current and future demands of the Egyptian labour market and equipping relevant partners with high quality evidence which would support them in making labour market-oriented decisions. As such, the project collaborated with ERF to produce sound research findings that aimed to address several topics related to the future of work, published during the national forums on the future of work in Egypt.
Research Fellows
Ghada Barsoum
Associate Professor and Chair of the Department...
Authors
Alanoud Ehab
Consultant, Poverty and Equity Global Practice, The...