Greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, are viewed as one of the core causes of climate change, and it has become one of the most important environmental problems in the world. International production fragmentation has led to substantial changes in labor market, such as job creation/job loss, changing labor market structure and labor productivity. Such changes are perceived to affect CO2 emissions of those economies that participate in different parts of global value chains. Is there a relation between Labor Force, Population, Life Expectancy, and CO2 emissions? Developed countries which is reflected by high life expectancy value can better handle manufacturing while maintaining low levels of CO2 emissions.

Can we reduce emissions without hurting jobs or companies’ financial performance?

The problem is the high pollution rate in manufacturing and populated countries around the world have been witnessing increase in CO2 emissions as population and labor force increased. According to the World Development Indicators dataset, CO2 emissions increases from manufacturing as labor force increases. The trend line is an increasing straight line (positive slope) which means that as the labor force is increasing the CO2 emissions are increasing. This means the manufacturing process is a source of pollution.

Moderate the manufacturing process using environmental-friendly techniques

• Increase investment in research and development to find new technologies to make the manufacturing process more eco-friendly.
• Increase spending (buy new technology) to manage an environment friendlier manufacturing process.

Find feasible methods to make the manufacturing process environmentally friendly and monitor the progress through:

• Using Energy efficiency
• Fuel switching
• Combined heat and power
• Use of renewable energy
• The more efficient use and recycling of materials

Russian Federation/ Singapore

• Singapore’s Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change (IMCCC) drives the whole-of-government effort to develop Singapore’s climate change mitigation measures. These consider Singapore’s national circumstances and challenges. Studies and technology roadmaps developed in collaboration with industry stakeholders, academic experts, and technical consultants, served as additional inputs on the potential of future technologies for long-term mitigation in Singapore. Public consultations were also carried out to obtain feedback on possible measures to reduce carbon emissions, and to promote green growth. Singapore’s broad strategies are reflected, inter alia, in the National Climate Change Strategy 2012 and the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint 2015. Legislation and regulations are also regularly reviewed to respond to new developments.
• Singapore has put in place early policy choices that “reduced our GHG emissions, for example by switching from fuel oil to natural gas– the cleanest form of fossil fuel – for power generation.”
• The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has developed “The CO2 AI Product Ecosystem” which is “an AI-enabled platform that allows all members of a company’s ecosystem to exchange product-level data, empowering organizations to compute their own carbon footprint.” This will help organizations and governments keep track of their carbon emissions/ footprint and is a method to hold manufacturers accountable.

Recommendations: Implementation of policies

• Governments must put in place policies that oblige manufacturers to alter their process to manufacture in an environmentally friendly way.
• These policies should encourage the use of:
• renewable energy,
• fuel switching,
• recycled materials to decrease their carbon footprint.