in climate-related industries,<sup>8</sup> they do not tell us about the nature of green jobs today, wages earned, or who works in those jobs.

A recent international literature uses a more systematic approach to identify and characterize green jobs. These studies use an occupational task approach, where they label an occupation – and the jobs within – as green based on how green the tasks within an occupation are, rather than the industry that houses a job (Granata and Posadas 2024; Vona et al. 2019; Consoli et al. 2016; Vona et al. 2018). The occupational tasks approach has been widely applied in labor economics to analyze how technological change has affected skills, wages and job polarization over time (Autor et al. 2003; Acemoglu and Autor 2011; Goos et al. 2014; Cunningham et al. 2022).<sup>9</sup> We can use the same logic to understand how a shift to a green economy may affect jobs. Using the occupational task approach allows for greenness of an occupation to be defined according to the number of tasks relating to environmental sustainability that are typically carried out in that occupation (Vona et al. 2019). The advantage of the occupational task approach is that one can identify green jobs in any industry, even those not directly engaged in environmentally sensitive industries.

This paper aims to fill the gap in the South African literature by using South African household survey data and applying an occupational task-based approach to characterize green jobs and workers in South Africa. Inspired by Granata and Posadas (2024), we define two sets of green jobs: strict and broad. Recognizing that occupations are groupings of jobs with similar tasks, we first identify “strictly green jobs,” as those in occupations that require at least one task that is directly linked to the environment. We then broaden our definition to include occupations with job tasks that could reduce human-induced environmental risks, if they used green technology or processes<sup>10</sup> and refer to the larger set of jobs as “broadly green jobs”. Notably, strictly green jobs are a subset of broadly green jobs. We then take stock of occupations that can be classified as strictly and broadly green in the current South African economy and, using regression analysis, profile the related jobs and workers. The paper does not forecast the number of new jobs or occupations that will arise from the transition to a 8 These studies may over-estimate the number of green jobs since not all workers in these sectors are involved in green activities. On the other hand, they underestimate green jobs because they do not consider other sectors where workers might be carrying out tasks that reduce the human-induced negative impact on the environment and climate change.

9 In this literature, it is useful to distinguish between tasks and skills. A task is defined as a unit of work activity that produces output (goods and services). A skill is defined as a worker’s endowment of capabilities for performing various tasks (Acemoglu and Autor 2011). Workers with similar skills can perform different tasks depending on the technology available to them and the production function.<sup>10</sup> These jobs could be carried out using green or non-green technologies or processes. For example, workers in agriculture could use traditional methods (non-green technologies) or could practice sustainable farming (green technology). Since we do not have information about the take-up of green technologies within occupations, we assume that those occupations where green technologies or processes could be used do indeed use them. This gives us an upper-bound of broadly green jobs in South Africa.

10 These jobs could be carried out using green or non-green technologies or processes. For example, workers in agriculture could use traditional methods (non-green technologies) or could practice sustainable farming (green technology). Since we do not have information about the take-up of green technologies within occupations, we assume that those occupations where green technologies or processes could be used do indeed use them. This gives us an upper-bound of broadly green jobs in South Africa.

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