Spain’s Empleaverde Program

 The Empleaverde Program of Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO) is run by the Biodiversity Foundation to “promote and improve employment, entrepreneurship and the environment”. The programme is co-financed by the European Social Fund under the Employment, Training and Education Operational Programme 2014-2020. It aims to leverage environmental opportunities to create good jobs and competitive companies by better aligning employment and environmental policy. The Biodiversity Foundation issues calls for grants as well as undertakes its own projects. 

Over the 2014-2020 period, the Empleaverde Program co-financed 288 projects in a range of environmental sectors, including the circular economy, renovation and sustainable buildings, eco-innovation, entrepreneurship, and ecological products, among others. The programme improved the employability of 2 783 people, while an additional 2 000 received support to create or improve a company. The Empleaverde Program might continue its work over the 2021-2027 period (currently under negotiation), focusing its activities on training for the green transition, targeting unemployed workers and entrepreneurs. Most recently, the Biodiversity Foundation issued two calls for grants in April 2022, one of which will be for projects that provide training, advice and support for job placement, while the other seeks to promote the hiring of unemployed people. Under the latest programme, MITECO will award EUR 7.5 million to 66 projects that support jobs in environmental sectors and promote training programmes in areas such as agricultural sustainability, forest management, the just and ecological transition or sustainable fashion. The projects are expected to train over 7 000 people.

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