ECO-FRIENDLY PRODUCTS AND EMPLOYMENT REPORT (GLOBAL)
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has released a report which predicts a significant rise in the production of environmentally friendly goods over the next two decades. The report focuses on the implications of this for employment in key industries.
Key findings
- Production of environmentally friendly goods is set to double, with turnover of 2.7 trillion dollars a year by 2020.
- About 2.1 million people could be working in wind energy and 6.3 million in solar energy by 2030. As many as 12 million jobs could be created by 2030 in biofuels-related agriculture and industry.
- Already the renewable energy industry employs more people than the fossil fuels sector.
- Compared to fossil-fuel power plants, renewable energy generates more jobs per unit of installed capacity, per unit of power generated and per dollar invested.
- In Germany the renewable energy sector will be larger than the automobile and machine manufacturing in the next ten years.
- In France energy efficiency and renewable already employs more than the car industry.
- Globally, some 300,000 workers are employed in wind power and around 170,000 in solar photovoltaics (PV). More than 600,000 people are employed in the solar thermal sector— the significant majority of them in China.
- So far, a small group of countries accounts for the bulk of renewables investment, R&D, and production. Germany, Japan, China, Brazil, and the United States play particularly prominent roles in renewable technology development, and, correspondingly, they have so far garnered the bulk of renewables jobs worldwide.
- 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.
For more informationThe full report can be viewed as a PDF by clicking here
To view the latest renewable energy jobs and green collar jobs please click here