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The document examines the potential for recovering construction materials from builders' rubble at Cape Town's drop-off sites to mitigate a regional landfill airspace crisis. It highlights a June 2019 survey showing that contractors at some sites recover an average of 920 bricks weekly, suggesting a business case for low-skilled job creation and support for low-income housing. However, the viability of this model is challenged by labour costs, the need for consistent volumes of quality material, and theft.

The report evaluates the N’Diaye wind farm in Senegal using the SAVi tool, which incorporates externalities and climate risks into financial modelling. While traditional analysis suggests coal is the cheapest option, a holistic cost-benefit analysis reveals that wind energy is the most favourable choice due to lower environmental impacts, higher employment generation, and the avoidance of significant social costs of carbon. HFO is found to be financially non-viable across all scenarios.

The report evaluates the Taïba N’Diaye wind farm in Senegal, comparing it to coal and heavy fuel oil (HFO) power generation. Using the SAVi methodology, it finds that while coal appears cheaper in conventional financial analyses, the wind farm is the most beneficial option when accounting for climate risks and external effects. The wind farm minimizes environmental impacts, maximizes socio-economic benefits such as job creation, and achieves a lower integrated Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) than the fossil fuel alternatives.

The Working for Water (WfW) scheme in South Africa is a large-scale integrated land management project launched in 1995 to clear invasive alien plants. By utilizing a labour-intensive approach, the program addresses water scarcity and biodiversity loss while providing employment and social services to marginalized communities. As of 2017, it creates approximately 50,000 jobs annually and operates over 300 projects across all nine provinces with an annual budget exceeding R400 million. While successful in clearing over 3 million hectares of plants and increasing streamflow, the program faces challenges in balancing immediate socioeconomic job creation with long-term ecological impact and managing the complexities of rapid expansion.

The Youth Employment Service (YES) is a private sector-led initiative launched in March 2018 to combat South Africa's youth unemployment crisis, which reached 39% for those aged 15-34 in Q2 2018. The programme aims to create 330,000 jobs annually, targeting one million opportunities over three years by providing inexperienced youth with one year of work experience to increase their marketability. To incentivise private sector participation, the Department of Trade and Industry integrated YES into the broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) measurement codes on 28 August 2018, allowing participating businesses to improve their B-BBEE scorecards by up to two levels. However, the document notes that the initiative's success is threatened by a technical recession, a poor-quality education system (ranked 137th out of 139 by the World Economic Forum in 2016), and the need to align skills with the 4th Industrial Revolution.

The Fisk Generating Station in Chicago closed in 2012 following community activism. While the city has proposed a bus garage or park, the Union of Concerned Scientists suggests the site could support a 9 megawatt solar farm and a 10 megawatt storage facility, leveraging the Future Energy Jobs Act and brownfield incentives to create local jobs.

The policy brief asserts that climate change threatens current and future developmental gains, necessitating that all economic endeavors and job creation initiatives be designed to be low-carbon and climate-resilient to avoid increasing the vulnerability of the poor and locking the economy into a perverse pathway.

The policy brief contends that South Africa's financial sector fails to fund productive investment in labour-intensive manufacturing because these sectors are high-risk and offer low short-term profits. It argues that existing DFIs, specifically the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), are too small and constrained by commercial funding models to fulfill their developmental mandates. The author proposes recapitalising these institutions with public funds, providing a stable low-cost funding line, and establishing an export-import (EXIM) bank to compete with other emerging markets like China and Brazil. These measures are intended to support sectors such as capital equipment exports, automotive subcomponents, and textiles to drive job creation.

The policy brief argues that South Africa has experienced premature deindustrialisation, with manufacturing's GDP contribution falling from 21% in 1994 to 13% in 2016. To reverse this, the Institute for Economic Justice recommends strategic interventions in three key areas: the machinery and equipment sector through a regional SADC strategy to create approximately 270,000 total jobs; the fruit industry by addressing phytosanitary constraints and expanding high-value exports (e.g., avocados) to create 130,000 jobs by 2022; and the plastics conversion industry through the establishment of light manufacturing clusters and raw material price regulation to potentially add over 40,000 jobs by 2024.

The Institute for Economic Justice (IEJ) contends that South Africa's reliance on microeconomic interventions and 'orthodox' macroeconomic policies—characterized by fiscal austerity and high interest rates—has failed to curb unemployment. The brief proposes a R500 billion fiscal stimulus and a fundamental shift in the South African Reserve Bank's (SARB) mandate to prioritize employment and growth over strict inflation targeting. It suggests various funding mechanisms for the stimulus, including increased taxation, moderate borrowing, and the use of over-capitalized pension funds. Additionally, it advocates for 'Quantitative Monetary Easing' (QME) to provide direct credit to productive sectors and the implementation of capital controls to stabilize the exchange rate and curb speculative capital flows.

The document argues that while small and medium businesses are critical for formal employment in South Africa, the sector has remained stagnant or declined over the last decade. It critiques the National Development Plan's job creation targets as unrealistic and highlights a significant imbalance in government support, which heavily favors large businesses. The brief proposes a shift toward a 'national social compact' (Quadrant IV) involving economy-wide reforms, including tax incentives for startups, tenure reform in Traditional Authority Areas, telecommunications liberalisation, and the use of competition policy to open market access for small and black-owned businesses.

The document presents an economic analysis by Synapse Energy Economics, Inc. showing that clean car standards drive job creation and GDP growth through automotive industry investments and increased consumer spending. It estimates that by 2035, these standards could add over 250,000 jobs and $16 billion to the GDP, while saving consumers $90 billion in annual fuel costs. The text also critiques a previous Indiana University study, noting that subsequent corrections to that study shifted its findings from a net GDP loss to a net gain.

The paper finds that while some countries like Ethiopia and Peru align their NDCs with national strategies, others like Bangladesh and Ghana exhibit a disconnect between climate commitments and energy planning. It argues that integrating climate objectives into national development strategies and leveraging co-benefits such as job creation and health improvements can drive higher ambition in revised NDCs.

The document argues that federal light-duty vehicle standards set by the EPA and NHTSA benefit Arkansas by reducing fuel costs, creating jobs, and lowering emissions. It projects that by 2030, the average Arkansas household will be $3,150 richer due to gas savings outweighing the upfront cost of more efficient vehicles. To date, Arkansas has saved $350 million, and the state is expected to see 5,000 new jobs. Environmentally, the standards eliminate global warming emissions in Arkansas nearly equivalent to those generated by providing electricity to Fayetteville.

The document argues that federal fuel economy and vehicle emissions standards set by the EPA and NHTSA provide significant financial and environmental benefits to Washington, DC, including household savings, job creation, and emissions reductions.

The document argues that federal fuel economy and emissions standards set by the EPA and NHTSA provide significant financial and environmental advantages to Georgia. By 2030, the average Georgia household is projected to be $2,700 richer due to gas savings. To date, the state has saved $970 million, and the standards have eliminated global warming emissions equivalent to four times those required to provide electricity to Savannah. The report further claims these standards support job creation and the stability of the American auto industry.

Federal fuel economy and vehicle emissions standards have saved Illinois $1.3 billion to date and are projected to make each household $2,200 richer by 2030. These standards are expected to create 27,200 new jobs in the state and eliminate global warming emissions equivalent to four times those from providing electricity to Springfield.

The document argues that federal light-duty vehicle standards set by the EPA and NHTSA provide significant financial and environmental advantages to Indiana. By 2030, the average Indiana household is projected to be $2,050 richer due to gas savings, and the state is expected to see 20,800 new jobs. To date, Indiana has saved $680 million. Environmentally, the standards eliminate global warming emissions equivalent to half of those produced by providing electricity to Indianapolis.

The document argues that federal light-duty vehicle standards set by the EPA and NHTSA in 2012 provide significant financial and environmental advantages to Kansas. By 2030, the average Kansas household is projected to be $2,750 richer due to gas savings, and the state is expected to see 5,900 new jobs. To date, Kansas has saved $330 million in fuel costs. Environmentally, the standards eliminate global warming emissions in Kansas equivalent to more than those generated by providing electricity to Topeka.

The document argues that federal fuel economy and global warming emissions standards set by the EPA and NHTSA provide significant financial and environmental benefits to Louisiana. It claims that by 2030, the average Louisiana household will be $3,200 richer due to gas savings outweighing the upfront cost of more efficient vehicles. To date, Louisiana has saved $530 million, and the state is expected to see 2,200 new jobs. Environmentally, the standards eliminate global warming emissions in Louisiana equivalent to half of those produced by providing electricity to New Orleans.