Keeping up with the United Nations – Fulvia Farinelli

As UNRCO economist in Argentina, I am responsible for promoting inter-agency cooperation on socio-economic development issues, with a cross gender, human rights and sustainability focus. In this context, I have represented the RCO in the national Advisory Board of PAGE since 2020. I am also responsible for leading the common country analysis (CCA) and for providing advice to the UNCT on international, regional, national and sub-national socio-economic trends and their impact on the SDGs, including on accelerator mechanisms such as the six key transitions promoted by the UN Secretariat.

Argentina counts on a rich endowment of natural resources and mineral reserves, including gas and lithium. Despite its still high dependency on fossil fuels, it is ideally positioned to transition towards renewable energies. Its remarkable industrial, scientific and technological capacity is reflected in the number of projects that have been put in place in the last few years for increasing energy generation from wind, solar, small hydro, biogas, and biomass renewable sources, with the objective of reaching at least 20 percent of the country’s demand by 2025. Important developments have also occurred in the development of green hydrogen production and technologies. Unfortunately, the rate of implementation of energy transition initiatives in Argentina has been heavily hindered by the need to reduce its fiscal deficit and to the unfriendliness of international financial markets, mainly due to the high risk associated with the economic volatility and political uncertainty of the country.

To start with, I would mention the national Roadmap toward Just Transition, which brought together representatives of three ministries and five UN agencies to design new green labor market policies in conjunction with green industrial and environmental policies. In this context, labor impact scenarios have been developed in several key green sectors, such as electric cars, sustainable tourism and sustainable public housing. A specific chapter on labor issues was also included in the National Strategy for the Green Hydrogen Economy, which resulted in a plan for the industrialization of low-carbon hydrogen also addressing the challenges of job creation.

PAGE contributed with several inputs to the development of the National Green Jobs Programme that was launched in 2023. Among others, the studies on green jobs indicators; the input-output model developed to analyze green jobs scenarios for the NDCs; the recommendations on salary allocations and tax exemptions for job insertion programs that would qualify as “green”; and the organization of national dialogues with the tripartite constituents on how to grasp the potential for post-pandemic employment recovery through green jobs.

Overall, capacity-building, media and education directly provided to the industry represent a real strength of PAGE Argentina. Let me just mention the manuals for SMEs on greening industrial sectors hosted by the online capacity-building platform of the (former) Ministry of Industry; the sectoral guidelines incorporated in the training platform of the Industrial Union; and the training material on promoting green jobs at the local level developed in partnership with the EU-financed Global Compact of Mayors Against Climate Change.

There is no doubt that PAGE has played a key role in advancing the circular economy agenda in Argentina. Just to mention a few highlights, let me refer to the development of a National Circular Economy Strategy, to the analysis of the fiscal impact of policy-scenarios for the recycling industry, with an emphasis on promotion measures such as exemptions and charges, and to the case-studies and guidelines on Industrial Symbiosis. All this led to the adoption of new regulations that streamline circularity and energy-efficiency into industrial promotion. PAGE has also been crucial for the design and implementation of a national digital system for the circular economy, which addresses some of the market-failures that make it difficult to develop a well-functioning recycling industry. There is a now need to follow up on all these issues at the provincial level, and to carry out the territorialization of the circular economy agenda.

We should not forget that many circular economy initiatives, such as recycling or waste management, are part of the Social, Solidarity and Popular Economy, and the information available on the subject is still scarce. PAGE and the UN system enhanced collaboration can contribute to data collection, systematization and analysis. PAGE can also maximize the economic impact of circular economy initiatives by supporting formalization processes, as the majority of jobs that are generated in these sectors are not registered, and by promoting decent work conditions and social protection coverage for workers whose rights are systematically neglected. PAGE Argentina can count on the ILO leadership to advance on the nexus between human, environmental and labor-rights, reiterating the importance of freedom of association or the right to collective bargaining as means for environmental justice, including due diligence and early consultation of indigenous communities. 

According to the Energy Transition Index released by the World Economic Forum in 2023, Argentina ranks only 85th out of 120 countries which are benchmarked on their current energy system performance and on the readiness of their enabling environment. This means that much remains to be done, in a context of deep crisis that is putting both equity and sustainability under pressure. PAGE can play a fundamental role in accelerating change and reiterating the importance of these core values in national policy-making.  

In emerging sectors related to energy and mining, such as lithium and renewables, there is a risk of re-primarization of the economy, which may worsen if the current estimation for a further contraction of the real GDP of Argentina by 3.3% percent by the end 2024 becomes a reality. There are also important asymmetries in the demand and supply of labor profiles, which may have a considerable impact in terms of job relocation and internal labor migration, as well as on the living conditions of local and indigenous communities. 

PAGE can provide a key contribution in promoting tripartite cooperation and social dialogue on a new socio-ecological contract, in a society that is experiencing extremely polarized and confrontational dynamics. PAGE is ideally placed to make more explicit the link between labor rights and environmental human rights and support the preparation of the Implementation Plan of the Escazú Agreement. Moreover, PAGE can assist the government in finding solutions to the financial bottlenecks that are slowing the pace of green transition initiatives, by deepening and territorializing its excellent work on sustainable and green finance.