Table ES-1. Estimated Employment in the Renewable Energy Sector, Selected Countriesand World, 2006

© Joerg Boethling / Still Pictures

Wind farm construction - Danish / Indian joint venture Vestas RBB. Tamil Nadu, Cape Comorin, India.



So far, a small group of countries accounts for the bulk of renewables investments, R&D, and

production. Germany, Japan, China, Brazil, and the United States play particularly prominent roles

in renewable technology development, and they have so far garnered the bulk of renewables

jobs worldwide. European manufacturers account for more than three-quarters of global wind

turbine sales, but India’s Suzlon also is a major force in the industry. China’s employment numbers

are particularly high because the country continues to rely on large numbers of relatively low paid

workers in contrast with the fewer higher paid workers found in Western industrialized countries.

Jobs in installing, operating, and maintaining renewable energy systems tend to be more local

in nature and can thus benefit other countries as well. Kenya, for example, has one of the largest

and most dynamic solar markets in the developing world. In Nairobi, the Kibera Community Youth

Program initiated a simple solar PV assembly project, providing young people with employment

and engendering considerable interest in emulating the success story in neighboring countries.

In Bangladesh, Grameen Shakti microloans have helped to install more than 100,000 solar home

systems in rural communities in a few years, with a goal of 1 million by 2015. Grameen is training

local youth and women as certified solar technicians and as repair and maintenance specialists,

hoping to create some 100,000 jobs.

Given rapidly rising interest in energy alternatives, future years may well see worldwide

employment soar—possibly as high as 2.1 million in wind energy and 6.3 million in solar PVs by

2030, and on the order of 12 million jobs in biofuels-related agriculture and industry. Projections

for individual countries all indicate strong potential for large job creation in coming years and

decades. Installations and maintenance of solar PV and solar thermal systems in particular offer

tremendous job growth.







Green Jobs: Towards decent work in a sustainable, low-carbon world



For countries or regions that have suffered from manufacturing job loss and de-industrialization

(such as the so-called U.S. “rust belt” or the former East Germany), wind and solar technology

development offers a welcome alternative. For countries like China, India, and others, renewables

technologies are an important opportunity for continued economic and technological

development.

But there is also a potential contradiction between renewables as a global source of jobs and

renewables as part of national competitive economic strategies. Although this does not have to be

a zero-sum game, a stellar export performance by a handful of countries does imply more limited

opportunities elsewhere on the planet. As renewables industries mature, they will increasingly be

marked by difficult issues of competitiveness, trade rules, and wage differentials that are already

familiar topics in other industries.

In addition to renewables, considerable attention has been directed toward the mitigation

potential of carbon capture and storage (CCS). From a climate stabilization point-of-view, phasing

out coal-fired power plants in particular is preferable; yet current policy in a number of countries—

China, India, and the United States in particular—is headed in the opposite direction. Whether

CCS is workable is open to question, and the technology is unlikely to come on-stream at a large

scale for many years. The employment implications have received scant consideration. CCS jobs

are not clearly distinct from those in conventional coal-fired base-load power stations. Many of

the subsurface operations are likely to be conducted by workers who are already in the oil and

gas industry, although some are technically more complex and will involve workers with a very

different skill set to those found at conventional power stations. CCS can also be expected to

generate employment through the construction of carbon dioxide pipeline networks. But overall,

it is capital intensive, and therefore the jobs created per million dollars of investment can be

expected to be low. Meanwhile, there is a danger that money spent on CCS may simply crowd out

investments in renewables and other energy alternatives.



Buildings

In the building sector and elsewhere in the economy, defining the energy-efficiency sector is

a vexing problem, since most of the relevant forms of employment are embedded in a broad

range of existing industries such as vehicle manufacturing, construction, lighting, heating and

cooling equipment, electronics, appliances, and so on. A major study commissioned by the

American Solar Energy Society (ASES) concludes that in 2006, there were 3.5 million direct jobs

in energy efficiency-related activities in the United States, plus another 4.5 million indirect jobs,

for a total of just over 8 million. (These numbers include various sectors beyond the building

sector, such as the recycling industry, vehicle manufacturing, and construction.) They are based

on the assumption that existing U.S. government standards and efficiency ratings are sufficiently

indicative of (currently) achievable energy efficiency. At least in some respects, however, this is a

somewhat questionable assumption, and it follows that the ASES findings overstate the extent of

existing green jobs.



Executive Summary







Efficiency measures in the building sector include green buildings and retrofitting as well as improving

the efficiency of individual building components including: water heaters, cooking equipment, domestic

appliances, office equipment, electronic appliances, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems,

and lighting. Macroeconomic studies, most of which have occurred in the United States and European

Union, show that these energy-efficiency measures lead to an overall net increase in jobs. This positive

result of both environmental gains and employment generation is known as the “double dividend.”

Some data on green employment specific to the building sector already exists, but they tend to

be small snapshots of a particular project or country, rather than a more comprehensive picture

of the sector. The most impressive building project to date is the German Alliance for Work and

the Environment, a retrofitting program serving 342,000 apartments as of March 2006. From

2001–2004, this project was responsible for creating 25,000 jobs and saving an existing 116,000.

In 2006, an estimated 145,000 additional FTE (full-time equivalent) jobs were attributed to this

building retrofit program as a result of increased levels of public-private spending. Additionally,

many studies have begun to assess the number of potential jobs that would be created through

energy-efficiency measures including investment, standards, and mandates. Table ES-2 highlights

some of these job predictions.



Table ES-2. Job Projections from Energy-Efficiency Measures in the Building Sector

Country



Study or Project Description



Projected Jobs



Canada



Retrofit municipal buildings on a national scale



5,600–7,840 full-time

equivalent



European Commission Study: 20 percent reduction in EU

energy consumption



1 million



European Trade Union Confederation Study: 75 percent

reduction of CO2 emissions in the residential building sector



1.377 million by 2050 or

2.585 million by 2030



Replacing traditional cook stoves with recently developed

biomass cooking technologies for 9 million households



150,000



Apollo Alliance Study: $89.9 billion investment in financing

for green buildings, providing tax incentives, investing in

research and development, and promoting new building

codes and standards.



827,260



U.S. Department of Energy: Standards on clothes washers,

water heaters, and fluorescent lamp ballasts



120,000 through 2020



European Union



India



United States



Types of jobs that are created in green building and the retrofitting process include green designers,

architects, auditors, engineers, estimators, project managers, and various jobs in the construction

trades, such as pipe fitters, sheet metal workers, and general construction workers, among others.

These jobs are created during the initial construction or investment periods and are likely to be

local jobs, which is especially beneficial for developing regions and areas of high unemployment.

The increase in demand for green building components and energy-efficient equipment will

stimulate green manufacturing jobs. Energy-efficient equipment often requires more skilled



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Green Jobs: Towards decent work in a sustainable, low-carbon world



labor than their inefficient counterparts, thus leading to not only a larger number of jobs, but also

higher-skilled, higher-paying employment.

Induced jobs are also created as money that would have been spent on energy services is respent back into the community. This effect can be larger than the direct and indirect generation

of green jobs themselves, particularly where energy is imported. Sectors such as manufacturing,

construction, education, services, finance, and agriculture, which are more labor intensive than

traditional energy services, stand to benefit from the re-spending effects associated with energy

efficiency. Workers in coal, oil, gas extraction, and fuel refining could see a reduction of jobs in the

traditional energy sector.

The IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report, published in 2007, identifies buildings as having the capacity

to reduce projected emissions 29 percent by 2020, the single largest potential of any sector, but

for the most part the green building sector is limited to a small fraction of workers in a handful of

countries. (The 2007 ASES study concluded that only 3 percent of buildings in the United States

qualified for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. Similarly, Canada

reported only 150 LEED projects in 2005.) Fortunately, much of what is needed for greening

the building sector can be done on the basis of existing technology with little or no net cost.

Governments must play a key role in creating mandates and standards, increasing research and

development funds, and providing financing incentives.



© Martin Bond / Still Pictures

Arrays of photovoltaic cells on the roof

of a government office building. In

background, Swiss federal parliament

buildings. Berne, Switzerland.



Executive Summary



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