The jobs depend on the plan being delivered in full. Whether vulnerable communities share in them depends on choices made now.
Ghana has set out an ambitious path for its energy sector. The Energy Transition and Investment Plan, launched in 2023 with technical support from Sustainable Energy for All, aims for net zero energy emissions by 2060. If the plan is delivered in full, it projects around 400,000 net new jobs. Delivering it in full depends on investment of about US$550 billion over the period.
That is a large condition, and the jobs figure should be read as a projection rather than a promise. Even so, the direction is clear. Alongside the energy plan, the National Green Jobs Strategy, developed by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations with support from the International Labour Organization, sets out how the country intends to create decent work that also protects the environment.
The harder question is who will get the jobs that do materialise.
Ghana's Energy Transition and Investment Plan projects around 400,000 net jobs by 2060, if the plan is delivered in full. Without deliberate effort, most of those jobs will go to people who are already well placed. This article looks at the green work that practical training can open up, such as solar repair and tree nurseries, and the choices that decide who benefits.
The risk of a narrow transition
Without deliberate effort, new green jobs tend to go to people who are already well placed: graduates in cities, people with existing technical qualifications and those with networks in growing industries. Rural communities, women and people working in the informal economy can be left out, even though they are often the most exposed to climate change and have the most to gain from new income.
If that happens, the transition will reduce emissions while leaving existing inequalities in place, and in some districts it may widen them.
Work that does not need a degree
Many green livelihoods can be reached through practical training. Examples include:
- installing and maintaining small solar systems for homes, clinics, schools and shops;
- making, selling and repairing improved cookstoves;
- offering climate smart farming services such as composting, irrigation and seed multiplication;
- running tree nurseries for agroforestry and restoration; and
- collecting, sorting and recovering waste for recycling.
Much of this work can happen in rural towns and districts, close to where people already live. It also meets local needs directly: power for a clinic, cleaner air in a kitchen, better yields on a farm.
Enterprises carry much of the load
Small enterprises employ a large share of Ghana's workforce. Helping them adopt cleaner technology, manage climate risk and train their staff spreads green livelihoods further than training individuals alone. It also builds the local businesses that keep equipment running long after it is installed.
Choices to make now
Whether the projected jobs reach vulnerable communities will depend on decisions taken well before 2060: where training is offered, who it is designed for, which enterprises receive support and whether women and rural districts are counted in the targets. A transition that sustains itself needs people who can build, run and repair it in every region, and not only in the cities.
References
Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (2021). National Green Jobs Strategy 2021 to 2025. Accra: Government of Ghana, with the International Labour Organization.
Sustainable Energy for All (2023). Ghana launches USD 550 billion Energy Transition and Investment Plan for achieving net zero emissions, creating 400,000 jobs by 2060. News release, 21 September 2023.
