Renewable Energy Could Create Millions of Jobs

Flickr: Davipt

By Elizabeth Wolfe

 

As natural resource supplies continue to dwindle, and with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen only a few months away, the clock is ticking for international leaders to come to an agreement on a viable plan for reducing the world’s reliance on natural resources. Switching from a global reliance on coal to a renewable source of energy would solve many of the problems facing the planet, according to a new report by Greenpeace International and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC).

“Global leaders can tackle the twin crises of global economic recession and climate change head on by investing in renewable energy,” Damon Moglen, a Greenpeace campaign director, said.

Switching from a global reliance on coal to a cleaner, renewable source of energy would prevent 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. The report also predicts a boom in jobs, with 2.7 million more clean energy jobs produced by the switch. This increase in jobs would come at the same time the coal industry contracts from its current 4.7 million jobs to an estimated 1.4 million by 2030.

The authors of the report assert that a change to clean energy would create more jobs than would exist if the world were to continue its reliance on coal. “For each job lost in the coal industry our green energy scenario…creates three new jobs in the renewable power industry. We can choose green jobs and growth or unemployment, ecological and social collapse” Moglen said. 

With the new jobs that would be created, the report shows that 6.9 million people could be employed in the renewable power industry by 2030. An additional 1.1 million jobs could also be created due to higher efficiency in electrical applications.

The renewable energy industry already employs 450,000 people in Europe, according to the report. A global consensus on energy sources is necessary, however, to create an actual change to humans’ impact the environment.

The report, “Working for the Climate: Renewable Energy & The Green Job [R]evolution” is based on research by Greenpeace and the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney.