Green Jobs in Southeast Asia: Comparing Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam

Solar panels do not install themselves. Electric vehicles still need mechanics. Waste cannot become a resource without workers who know how to collect, separate and process it. Even the strongest green policies will struggle to deliver results without people who have the right skills and access to decent employment.

This is why green job creation matters.

The Green Economy Tracker notes that green jobs can provide sustainable livelihoods for citizens. Green jobs are defined as employment that improves environmental sustainability by making existing industries greener, conserving or restoring nature, or creating jobs in new clean sectors such as renewable energy. Strong green job policies should not only create more employment opportunities, but also support decent wages, safe working conditions, social inclusion, and pathways for workers to move away from declining or environmentally harmful industries.

In Southeast Asia, countries work together through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. As these economies respond to climate change and pursue greener development, green skills and employment are becoming increasingly relevant to workers across the region. ASEAN has recognised green jobs as decent employment that reduces negative environmental impacts while supporting inclusive economic growth.

Among the Southeast Asian countries currently covered by the Green Economy Tracker, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam are three major economies and energy markets. All three are preparing their workforces for greener development, but their approaches and levels of policy progress differ.

The Green Economy Tracker currently gives Malaysia a score of 4 out of 5 for green job creation, while Indonesia and Vietnam each receive a score of 3.

These scores do not represent the number of green jobs that have already been created. Instead, they assess whether countries have policies and actions to create decent and inclusive green employment, address inequality and support workers and communities moving away from carbon-intensive sectors.

So, how do the approaches of these three countries differ?

Green Economy Tracker's green job creation comparison

Malaysia: Connecting Skills With Employment

Within the Green Economy Tracker’s assessment, Malaysia has made the strongest policy progress among the three countries in connecting green skills with employment services.

Malaysia launched its Green Jobs Guideline in 2025. At the same time, Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Corporation formalised collaborations with HRD Corp and PERKESO to support green-skills training, job placement and professional certification.

The Green Jobs Malaysia Portal, developed by MGTC in 2021, also provides a dedicated platform for vacancies related to environmental sustainability. The portal applies a definition of green jobs that includes decent-work principles such as adequate wages, safe working conditions, workers’ rights, social dialogue and social protection.

This matters because workers need more than general promises that green industries will create opportunities. They need to know which jobs are available, what qualifications are required and where they can obtain recognised training.

Malaysia’s broader Employment Insurance System also provides eligible workers who lose their jobs with temporary income replacement, re-employment assistance, job matching and access to skills training. Although this system was not created exclusively for the green transition, it provides infrastructure that could help workers respond to future changes in the labour market.

However, Malaysia still needs stronger coordination. The Green Economy Tracker notes that the country does not yet have a fully integrated national strategy connecting green job creation with a comprehensive just-transition framework for affected workers and communities.

Malaysia’s progress shows that green employment becomes more accessible when skills development is connected to certification, employment services and worker protection.

Indonesia: Greening Millions of Existing Jobs

Indonesia’s main challenge is scale.

As Southeast Asia’s largest labour market, Indonesia must create employment in emerging clean industries while also helping millions of existing workers adapt to economic and technological change.

In April 2025, the Indonesian government launched the Green Workforce Development Roadmap. The roadmap uses a task- and competency-based approach, recognising that green employment is not limited to environmental specialists or renewable-energy engineers. Existing occupations can also become greener when workers adopt new skills and more sustainable practices.

A mechanic can learn to repair electric vehicles. A construction worker can adopt energy-efficient building practices. A farmer can apply climate-resilient agricultural methods. Waste workers can become part of safer and more formal circular-economy systems.

Bappenas projects that Indonesia could have approximately 4 million green workers in 2025, equivalent to 2.7% of the national workforce. Under a high economic-growth scenario, this number could rise to more than 5.3 million, or 3.14% of the workforce, by 2029. Jobs with the potential to become green are projected to increase from around 56 million in 2025 to 72 million in 2029.

The distinction between workers who are already classified as green and workers whose jobs have the potential to become greener is important. Indonesia’s opportunity does not lie only in creating completely new occupations. It also lies in changing how existing work is performed.

The Green Economy Tracker gives Indonesia a score of 3 for green job creation. It recognises growing opportunities in areas such as renewable energy, waste management and ecotourism, but finds that nationwide reskilling and just-transition support remain limited.

The 2025 roadmap provides a stronger foundation for addressing these gaps, but Indonesia’s next challenge is implementation. Green competencies need to be integrated into vocational education, professional standards and employer recruitment. Training must also reach informal workers, rural communities and regions that currently depend on carbon-intensive industries.

Indonesia demonstrates that green job policies should not focus only on creating new occupations. They must also transform the work that millions of people already do.

Vietnam: Connecting Green Jobs With Economic Growth

Vietnam has integrated green employment into its broader economic development and green-growth strategies.

The National Green Growth Strategy for 2021–2030, with a vision towards 2050, connects greener production with economic restructuring, competitiveness and social inclusion. Its National Action Plan includes measures related to green skills, workforce development and the mobilisation of finance for green growth.

This is especially relevant for a country whose economic growth is closely connected to manufacturing and exports. Vietnam’s approach recognises that workforce development should be part of economic strategy rather than treated as a separate environmental program.

Vietnam has also begun developing a clearer evidence base for green employment. A World Bank study used an occupational task-based method and identified 39 out of 441 occupations included in Vietnam’s 2021 Labour Force Survey as green. The study also examined occupations that contain tasks with the potential to become more environmentally sustainable.

Such information can help governments understand what skills employers need, which occupations are changing and where training gaps may emerge.

However, Vietnam receives a score of 3 from the Green Economy Tracker. The Tracker finds that although green job creation and workforce development are recognised in national planning, challenges remain in defining and measuring green employment. Training systems for emerging green sectors also require further development.

National objectives must therefore be translated into practical employment pathways. Training institutions need stronger connections with employers, while existing workers need access to short, flexible and affordable reskilling programs.

The World Bank has recommended making reskilling and upskilling more accessible through short courses and on-the-job training delivered jointly by employers and training institutions. It has also called for regular monitoring to identify workers who may become vulnerable as labour demand changes.

Vietnam’s experience shows the importance of embedding green jobs within national economic planning. However, national plans must be supported by effective training systems, reliable workforce data and clearer pathways into employment.

Different Strengths, Shared Challenges

The comparison does not produce a simple winner.

Malaysia is progressing in connecting training, certification, employment services and worker protection.

Indonesia has recognised the potential to green millions of existing jobs, but it now needs to implement its workforce roadmap at scale.

Vietnam has embedded green employment within its national development strategy, but it needs stronger workforce data and more mature training systems.

All three countries still face a shared challenge: ensuring that green employment is both accessible and decent.

A green job should not only contribute to lower emissions or environmental protection. It should also provide fair income, safe working conditions and realistic career opportunities. Training programs must be linked to genuine employer demand, while workers affected by economic change need support during the transition.

Regional cooperation could also help. Southeast Asian economies share supply chains, energy systems and labour markets. The ASEAN–ILO Regional Study on Green Jobs Policy Readiness encouraged member states to develop a more common understanding of green jobs and skills, exchange knowledge and learn from regional best practices.

More comparable occupational standards and recognised qualifications could eventually make it easier for workers to participate in green projects across sectors and national borders.

Visit Vietnam’s Green Economy Tracker profile to explore the evidence behind the scores and review the sources. The Tracker is a crowd-sourced platform, which means its value depends on people contributing new evidence, updated legislation, and national policy developments. A greener and fairer economy requires more than ambitious targets; it also requires participation, implementation, transparency, and continuous public learning. You can help keep the profile current by clicking the “Have Your Say” button and sharing relevant information or feedback.

This article was contributed by su-re.co and IIED Europe to strengthen public understanding, participation, and evidence-based discussion around the Green Economy Tracker, a policy analysis platform developed by the Green Economy Coalition.