The Festival takes place from the 9th to the 23rd October, and covers thematics directly related to renewable energy, social finance, soft transportation, responsible consumption. The documentaries, and short films, are accessible online, as well as tips and practical advice.

The audience learns right away that green economy begins with changing behaviours and everyday habits. Each action can have a bigger global impact than we might realize, as choosing sustainable modes of transportation, or avoiding individually packaged goods, is something that everybody can afford doing and its effect capitalizes on numbers.

What is more, many industrial processes have a significant ecological impact, as shown by several shorts; hence the importance for a transition towards greener industrial practices. Some of the documentaries offer example of companies who already implement such changed and might be an inspiration to others.

The Festival’s organizers, however, are not only active online. Since it is known that a green economy requires proactive policies, the festival will feature a screening at the European Parliament as a contribution towards increasing awareness among decision-makers.

The festival will also take place in Brussels during the Fair Trade Week. The program includes a family and general public day and a professional networking day. Finally, there will be a screening of the film Surviving Progress (produced by Martin Scorsese), which will be followed by a debate between students and representatives from international institutions on the limits of progress. The speakers include Isabelle Durant – European deputee, Vice-president of the European Parliament -, Chris Vanden Bilcke – Head of UNEP’s Liaison Office to the EU in Brussels -, Jeremy Wates – Head of the European Environmental Bureau -, Laurent Ledoux – Head of the ASBL Philosophy & management.

A rapid look at the shorts online leave the impression of a vast, rich, and diverse production. The shorts can be watched by the audience directly from the Festival’s website, and voted.

http://www.greenupfilmfestival.com/en

“Many young people are finding it very difficult to integrate into the economy, but there are opportunities and things are being done,” said the Director of Job Creation and Enterprise Development Department at the International Labour Organization (ILO), Peter Poschen, at a side event organized by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) yesterday in Rio de Janeiro.

“Finding new ways of thinking about development and how it can create jobs is important to ensure that in the long-term young people have access to a better future.”

During the event, representatives from governments, UN officials and young people discussed the situation that the latter face today and what needs to be done so they can have access to jobs that offer adequate social protection and that are not at odds with the environment.

“Every young person, including me, thinks the opportunities are out there, not within us or around us, and we have this quest to go and see it,” said John Wali, a youth activist from Kenya taking part in the event, who has been working on projects to help young people set up their own enterprises.

One of the main issues discussed was the need to provide youth with the right skills to engage in a green economy. In an interview with the UN News Centre, Mr. Poschen noted that many times there is a gap between the skills supplied by the workforce and those required by jobs in green sectors such as energy.

“There is a bottleneck in many countries and in many sectors in which the right qualifications are not available in the labour market for green sectors that are growing rapidly in the face of the economic crisis,” Poschen said. “So we have an ironic situation where, on the one hand, there is gaping unemployment among young people and, on the other hand, there are vacancies that have not been filled because people have not been trained.

“Adjustments in the national education and in the national skills systems are very important in making sure that we do not have these kinds of mismatches.”

Poschen stressed that green jobs must also offer social protection so that people work under fair and decent conditions and to ensure that they can absorb shocks like the economic crisis as well as climate-related disasters.

Felix Beck, a Rio+20 youth delegate representing Germany, said that this is one of the main concerns of young people in Europe. “We need to discuss how we can create jobs not just for the short term but also in the long term so we can have access to quality jobs because a lot of people are doing unpaid internships,” he said. “This is something that seems to be necessary to get a paid position, but right now many people are in a loop doing one unpaid internship after another, so this is really an issue.” Beck is also part of a non-governmental organization called Rio+20s, that has been trying to leverage the participation of youth in the lead-up to the Conference.

Many other side events at Rio+20 are also focusing on how youth can not only benefit from sustainable development policies but can actively contribute to the process. Rio+20 follows on from the Earth Summit in 1992, also held in Rio de Janeiro, during which countries adopted Agenda 21 – a blueprint to rethink economic growth, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection.

The study “Working towards sustainable development: Opportunities for decent work and social inclusion in a green economy” says that these gains will depend on whether the right set of policies are put in place.

“The current development model has proven to be inefficient and unsustainable, not only for the environment, but for economies and societies as well”, said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. “We urgently need to move to a sustainable development path with a coherent set of policies with people and the planet at the centre”.

“The forthcoming “Rio+20” United Nations conference will be a crucial moment to make sure decent work and social inclusion are integral parts of any future development strategy”, he added.

Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said: “This report comes on the eve of World Environment Day on 5 June under the theme Green Economy: Does it Include You?”.

“The findings underline that it can include millions more people in terms of overcoming poverty and delivering improved livelihoods for this and future generations. It is a positive message of opportunity in a troubled world of challenges that we are relaying to capital cities across the globe as leaders prepare and plan for the Rio+20 Summit,” he added.

The report – published almost four years after the first study by the Green Jobs Initiative – looks at the impact that the greening of the economy can have on employment, incomes and sustainable development in general.

At least half of the global workforce – the equivalent of 1.5 billion people – will be affected by the transition to a greener economy. While changes will be felt throughout the economy, eight key sectors are expected to play a central role and be mostly affected: agriculture, forestry, fishing, energy, resource-intensive manufacturing, recycling, building and transport.

Tens of millions of jobs have already been created by this transformation. For example the renewable energy sector now employs close to 5 million workers, more than doubling the number of jobs from 2006-2010. Energy efficiency is another important source of green jobs, particularly in the construction industry, the sector hardest hit by the economic crisis.

In the United States, three million people are employed in environmental goods and services. In Spain, there are now more than half a-million jobs in this sector.

Net gains in employment in the order of 0.5 – 2 per cent of total employment are possible. In emerging economies and developing countries, the gains are likely to be higher than in industrialized countries, because the former can leapfrog to green technology rather than replace obsolete resource-intensive infrastructure. Brazil has already created just under three million jobs, accounting for some 7 per cent of all formal employment.

“Occupational safety and health is embedded in the goal of decent work and decent work for all is central to the social pillar of sustainable development,” said the Director-General of the International Labour Organization, Juan Somavia, in his message marking the World Day for Safety and Health at Work (April 28).

According to ILO, two million people die every year from work-related accidents and diseases, 160 million people suffer from work-related diseases, 270 million fatal and non-fatal work-related accidents occur every year, and four per cent of the world’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) is lost as a consequence of occupational diseases and accidents.

ILO chief emphasized that the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in June will provide countries an opportunity to focus on the promotion of safer workplaces as part of an inclusive approach to development that takes into account the needs of people as well as the planet.

“Experience has already shown that some substances while being more environmentally friendly could be more hazardous to workers’ health. Consequently, renewable energies, waste management and recycling, as well as the greening of traditional industries must be approached from the outset with an eye on the occupational safety and health challenges with the aim of eliminating old hazards and risks and preventing new ones from emerging,” Somavia said.

To mark the Day, ILO also launched a report that looks at different green industries from an occupational safety and health perspective and stresses that green jobs must be accompanied by appropriate measures to protect all workers.

“Moving towards a green economy implies setting higher standards for environmental protection while, at the same time, incorporating workers’ safety and health as an integral part of the strategy,” said the Director of the ILO Programme on Safety and Health at Work and the Environment, Seiji Machida. “Only then will we be contributing to an environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive outcome.”

Meanwhile, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights obligations related to environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and waste Cali Georgescu warned that millions of workers around the world are still exposed to disease and injury in their places of work, and called on countries to pay attention to promote and create a safe working environment to reduce the number of work-related deaths each year.

“For millions of workers, safety and protection from disease and injury arising from their employment is not yet a reality,” Georgescu said. “I am particularly concerned about the exposure to these hazardous substances of children and pregnant women, and call for protection measures to be strictly enforced,” he added.