In a new film released this week, decision-makers from around the world describe how they are creating sustainable jobs and economic growth by embracing low emission development.

In ‘Achieving a resilient future’, government leaders from Dominican Republic to Zambia tell how they have invested in long-term job opportunities in ways that are providing food and energy security but avoiding the greenhouse gas emissions that drive dangerous climate change.

The film looks at the benefits of low emission technologies and approaches in developing countries - ranging from renewable energy development to climate-smart agriculture.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNq5MyeiLDM&feature=youtu.be[/embed]

“There is no country in the world that has the luxury of ignoring climate change,” says Alexia Kelly, Finance Working Group Lead of the LEDS Global Partnership. “Increasingly we’re seeing that low emission development strategies help advance economic and social benefits while also keeping in mind the fact that all economic development activity has impacts on climate change.”

Nigel Francis, Minstry of Public Works, Antigua and Barbuda, adds: “Working on the economic side of LEDS [low emission development strategies], definitely there will be a lot of job creation”. Mr Francis describes how in his country’s construction industry, low-emission approaches have opened up job opportunities for women in a traditionally male-dominated field.

Jeniffer Hanna of the National Council for Climate Change, Dominican Republic and Tasila Banda of the National Development Planning Agency, Zambia, concur that low emission development opportunity is creating new profit-making opportunities for the private sector: “For example, if it’s cookstoves, you need the entire value chain to manufacture it, to maintain it, to install it,” said Ms Banda.

The film also highlights how the LEDS GP’s network of peer-to-peer advisors and technical support has provided material assistance to countries such as Sri Lanka to green its national investments plans.

“When I was developing the draft low emission development strategy for the Sri Lankan government, the LEDS GP helped us a lot to develop the institutional capacity within the country,” says Buddika Hemashantha of Climate Smart Initiatives, Sri Lanka. The Partnership is ultimately a place where you can find “like-minded people”, says Ms Banda with a smile, and where you can grow your skills as a development practitioner.

Read more about the LEDS GP and join here.

Photo by Axel Fassio/CIFOR