Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the potential of green industrialisation to aid structural transformation through labour-intensive production and generate a discussion on policy approaches to ensuring that green industrialisation is able to generate this labour-intensive industrialisation.

Paper long abstract:

The intensive utilisation of labour in production processes has significant implications for structural transformation. Labour-intensive industrialisation, particularly in East Asia, has been proposed as an alternative paradigm to traditional Western capital-intensive models of industrialisation but has been less explored from a perspective that centres climate change and the green transition. The labour-intensive industrialisation approach suggests a significance of upgrading the quality of labour for the industrialisation process as demonstrated in East Asian economies; particularly Japan. Accordingly, this paper assesses the contribution of green industries not only to employment generation but also the upgrading and capability-building of labour through engagement with the theory on labour-intensive industrialisation and presenting the historical experience of labour-intensive industrialisation in East Asia; China, Korea, and Japan in particular, in order to reiterate common factors for their success. It also briefly discusses methodological concerns over measuring the labour intensity of production and the measurement of green jobs. The solar energy industry is utilised as a case study to determine the contribution of green industries to employment generation. The paper then concludes with the proposal a policy approach that centres labour-intensive production in sustainable development based on the theory and historical experiences. This proposal also identifies context-specific factors in other regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa that will need to be overcome in order to generate labour-intensive green industrialisation.