European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has published a new report, "
Green Jobs and Occupational Safety and Health: Foresight on New and Emerging Risks Associated With New Technologies by 2020."
According to the report, meeting the EU's targets on renewable energy and energy efficiency may create more than 1 million new jobs. However, the report warns that because policy and practice in OSH focus too often on reacting to existing risks and problems, worker safety and health may be compromised. "It is therefore important to anticipate new and emerging OSH risks in these developing green jobs in order to ensure decent, safe and healthy working conditions. Green jobs should indeed not only beneļ¬t the environment but also workers," the report concludes.
The EU used a scenario-building approach to examine the potential for risk in green jobs and the results highlights the importance of risk assessment. "In any case, whether new or ‘old’ risks, the workplace risk assessment remains key to devising adequate prevention, with measures taking into account the specificity of the green job considered and of the workers involved."
Download a summary of the full report
here and a presentation file contain key illustrations and findings
here.
