{
  "id": 2154966,
  "title": "For young job seekers, sustainability cannot only be a target for 2050",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/20/for-young-job-seekers-sustainability-cannot-only-be-a-target-for-2050-2154966",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-20T14:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The National Business",
    "slug": "the-national-business",
    "url": "https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/comment/2026/08/20/sustainability-youth-jobs-climate-carbon-economy/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In today's corporate world, striking a balance between short, medium, and long-term goals has become increasingly complex, particularly in the realm of sustainability. While the focus has long been on environmental concerns such as carbon emissions, the next decade requires a shift towards addressing the urgent issue of job creation for young people. After all, without opportunities for employment, education, and training, the true impact of a green transition may be limited.\n\nYouth unemployment remains a significant problem worldwide, with a global average of 12.4 percent. In the Arab world, where nearly 60 percent of the population is under the age of 30, the situation is even more dire. Around 300 million young people in the region are struggling to find jobs, with 110 million aged between 15 and 29 – the working age as defined by the International Labour Organisation. This issue has persisted for over a decade, despite changes in the generation and increased education levels among the youth.\n\nThe consequences of prolonged unemployment are far-reaching. Not only does it lead to delayed careers, postponed households, and underutilized skills, but it also contributes to social issues like frustration, alienation, and a loss of trust in institutions. Moreover, the region's young people are often better educated, more ambitious, and more connected digitally than previous generations. Consequently, the challenge for the Arab world is not just about producing talent, but also about converting that talent into meaningful opportunities and ensuring that young people have a stake in their societies' future.\n\nThe workshop of sustainability is also changing. Artificial intelligence is projected to impact approximately 40 percent of jobs globally, with the International Labour Organisation estimating that one in four jobs has some exposure to generative AI. While this transformation will likely eliminate some jobs, it will also transform many others. Policymakers must adapt to this evolving landscape by redesigning a new age of sustainability that encompasses the triple bottom line: people, planet, and prosperity. This means acknowledging that environmental responsibility is no longer sufficient; it must be accompanied by job creation, skills development, and economic growth.\n\nGovernments worldwide are beginning to recognize this shift. In the UK, for instance, government contracts will now require job creation alongside green targets. Companies bidding for major public contracts will be assessed based on the jobs, skills, and opportunities they create for local communities, thereby transforming government procurement budgets into labor market policies. This approach aims to ensure that investments in sustainability not only reduce emissions but also generate economic value, enable people to participate productively, and stay within environmentally sustainable limits.\n\nTo truly achieve sustainability, policymakers should ask critical questions about every major investment, infrastructure program, or green transition initiative: How much economic value will it create? How many people will be enabled to participate productively in that value? And can that value be created within environmentally sustainable limits? By adopting this approach, the region can ensure that sustainability is not just an objective for the distant future (such as 2050), but also a reality that young people can experience on a day-to-day basis.",
  "summary": "The corporate world’s eternal challenge is how to get the right balance between short, medium and long-term goals. This is now especially true in the sustainability domain. For much of the past two decades, the sustainability debate has focused on carbon, which is critical for our future, but the next decade needs to begin to focus on jobs, critical for our present. That does not mean abandoning…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The National UAE",
        "title": "For young job seekers, sustainability cannot only be a target for 2050",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/20/for-young-job-seekers-sustainability-cannot-only-be-a-target-for-2050",
        "published": "2026-08-20T14:00:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}