A green jobs report released today by Environment Victoria and the Brotherhood of St Laurence summarizes the recommendations made by more than 180 people from business, government, unions, environment groups and the social sector who attended a Green Jobs Summit in April this year.
Summit attendees put forward a number of ideas for the state government to include in its Green Jobs Plan due to be released in coming weeks. Environment Victoria’s campaigns director Mark Wakeham said today:
“The Green Jobs Summit report released today shows there is a very high level of support for decisive action to create green jobs, to ensure these jobs are accessible to all Victorians and to put policy in place to green our economy.
“In particular, the Summit called for the Brumby Government to introduce a ‘green makeover’ program that would aim to retrofit 1 million Victorian homes over the next five years to improve energy and water efficiency.
“Such a program would create 6,900 new jobs, reduce Victoria’s emissions by 3 million tonnes per year and reduce household energy and water bills. It should also target low-income households who spend high proportions of their income on energy and water.”
Mr Wakeham said governments around the world were pursuing green jobs to counter both climate change and recession.
“Creating green jobs is one of those rare win-win-win areas. We can deliver for the environment, economy and help unemployed people back into the workforce,” he said.
“However, if Victoria is going to seize the green jobs opportunities, the state government will need to bite the bullet and ensure their Green Jobs plan has clear job-creating measures.”