UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday announced a new initiative aimed at ensuring that decent job creation and protecting livelihoods are at the center of countries' efforts to boost climate action, and urged countries to join the initiative.

The new Climate Action for Jobs initiative will be presented at the 2019 Climate Action Summit on Sept. 23 at the UN headquarters.

According to a press release, the initiative provides a roadmap for ensuring that people's jobs and well-being are at the center of the transition to a carbon-neutral economy.

Guterres said that some 1.2 billion jobs or 40 percent of world employment rely directly on a healthy and stable environment.

"Business cannot succeed on a planet that fails. Jobs cannot be sustained on a dying planet," he added.

The new initiative calls on countries to formulate national plans for a just transition, creating decent work as well as green jobs, and sets out specific measures including increasing the transfer of technology and knowledge to developing countries, and innovation and responsible investment.