For example, from 1980 to 1999, U.S. coal extraction rose 32 percent, but employment fell 66 percent. In the European Union's chemical industry, production grew by 25 percent from 1990 to 1998, but jobs declined by 14 percent. Job creation is particularly important in the developing world, where almost all of the growth in population will take place in the coming decades. Businesses have long sought to compete by economizing on their use of labor. To build a sustainable economy, we need to economize on the use of energy and materials instead.
Fiscal policy can be a powerful tool for increasing the productivity of energy and materials.
Current tax systems encourage high resource use and discourage job creation. An ecologically-driven reform of tax policy would reduce payroll taxes while simultaneously raising taxes on resources use and pollution. This kind of tax shifting started to become a reality during the 1990s in a number of European countries, including Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Labor unions and environmentalists could work together to build a stronger political base for these changes in policy. Environmental dangers often translate into health and safety issues at the workplace.