Page 7 - centre-justtransitionframeworkinPH.cdr

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Philippine government can be lauded for consistently acceding
to very important international agreements – the Paris Agreement on
climate change and the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development
on ghting poverty and inequality. Its further adoption as well as the
pilot application of the International Labor Organization's (ILO) twin
frameworks on Decent Work (2009) and Just Transition (2015) in
the country can likewise be considered as bold steps needed in
escorting the country's transition to a low carbon and more equitable
future.

However, in subsequent program implementation, government
initiatives most of the time are found wanting of desired policy
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outcomes. The country's chronic decent work decits may lead us to
conclude that another instrument that seeks thoroughgoing
structural changes would be similarly paralyzed.

The pilot application of ILO's Just Transition in the country should
have conveyed a fresh and holistic framework to the usually
fragmented approaches attending the government's energy transition
programs. Both the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of
2001(EPIRA) and the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 do not contain
a clear framework that equally deals with the twin problems of
climate crisis and poverty. It was only in the Green Jobs Act of 2016
that such a framework was introduced to concerned government
agencies.

The Green Jobs Act puts decent work and human capital
development at the center of pursuing a climate-resilient and an
environmentally sustainable pathway, according to ILO, as green jobs
refer to employment that contributes to preserving or restoring the
quality of the environment and promoting decent work at the same
time.

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