On 15 November 2023 UNU-IAS co-organized a session at the Asia-Pacific Climate Week in Johor, Malaysia as part of the Youth4Capacity project. The event focused on skills development and green job creation to engage youth in a just transition, aiming to raise awareness and build capacity of young climate practitioners, entrepreneurs and activists in the Asia-Pacific region.
Mark Akrofi (Postdoctoral Fellow, UNU-IAS) highlighted that the green economy is anticipated to generate around 60 million jobs by 2030. Emphasizing the importance of making these jobs accessible and inclusive for young people, he pointed out the need for increased collaboration between industry and educational institutions to co-design modules for green skills, and foster internship opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience in the green sector. Dr. Akrofi noted that such training programmes should also be accessible in rural areas, and cited an example of a project that trains rural youth on solar irrigation and milling systems, empowering communities to transition from subsistence to small agro-processing industry.
The event was co-organized by United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), UNU-IAS, Youth Empowerment in Climate Action Platform (YECAP) and YOUNGO, the official children and youth constituency of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
