Employment creation has received surprisingly little attention in the literature on environmental economics. This paper argues for closer ties between sustainable development and employment-creating development at both the global and the national levels of planning and policy. The paper briefly reports on the employment challenge confronting Indonesia to highlight the jobs-versus-environment dilemma facing a developing country that is rich in natural resources but densely populated. It is argued that the high-income countries of the North should take the initiative in raising funds through ecotaxes, levies on international trade and other appropriate income policies in order to increase investment flows for job-creating development in the South to make sustainability a practical reality.
