The report highlights the potential to create 15 million net jobs in sectors such as sustainable agriculture, forestry, solar and wind power, manufacturing, and construction during a just transition to net-zero emissions in Latin America and the Caribbean.

With adequately designed measures to ensure that these jobs are decent and that those who lose out in the transition are protected and supported, recovery plans can stop the climate emergency while also boosting growth, tackling inequality, and making progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

A Brighter Future with Net-Zero Emissions

Stabilizing climate change below 2°C and as close to 1.5°C as possible, the objective set in the Paris Agreement, requires getting to net-zero carbon emissions by around 2050 (IPCC, 2018).

Latin America and the Caribbean can achieve carbon-free prosperity through immediate and parallel actions around five pillars:

1. phasing out fossil fuel electricity generation and replacing it with carbon-free sources such as wind and solar power;

2. using electricity instead of fossil fuels for transportation, cooking, and heating;

3. increasing public and non-motorized transportation;

4. halting deforestation and planting trees, which will require shifting diets away from animal-based foods towards more plant-based food, and;

5. reducing waste in all sectors, recycling materials, and switching to sustainable construction materials, such as wood or bamboo.

By 2030, structural changes in production and consumption patterns can result in 15 million more jobs in Latin America and the Caribbean compared with a business-as-usual scenario. The gain in employment will largely be the result of changes in diets, and to a lesser extent of decarbonizing the energy system. Shifts in diets create 19 million more full-time equivalent jobs in plant-based agriculture in 2030, but 4.3 million fewer jobs in livestock herding, poultry, dairy, and fishing.

Policies must ensure that new jobs created in emerging sectors such as plant-based agriculture and renewable energy are decent jobs. Agricultural workers, and more generally workers in rural areas, often lack access to social protection; strategies to extend both contributory and non-contributory social protection coverage in rural areas need to be strengthened.

On a broader level, decarbonisation can improve food security and bring better jobs if it embraces rural development objectives. This may require strengthening public services such as rural infrastructure service provision, and improving access to markets and promoting local products.