Green Jobs on the Economic Horizon
Newly created “eco jobs” are creating both a healthier planet and a healthier world economy
Even in the deep gloom of a global recession, there is a bright spot. A bright green spot, actually. And it’s growing. The brightness emanates from the anticipated growth of employment opportunities in green industries.
The way the
Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) sees it, the
renewable energy industry alone has been one of the brightest spots for the struggling U.S. economy.
One new national standard, requiring electric utilities to increase their use of renewable sources of energy by 25 percent by 2025, would create close to 300,000 new jobs, and have the impact on global warming of taking 45.3 million cars off the roads.
Wind power is a good example of a burgeoning renewable industry. According to the independent research organization,
World Watch Institute, global wind power capacity reached 94,100 megawatts by the end of 2007, up 27 percent from the previous year, and then topped 100,000 megawatts by April 2008. The Union of Concerned Scientists adds that in the US, in 2007 and 2008,
more wind power turbines were installed than in the previous 20 years combined. More than 70 wind turbine-manufacturing facilities opened, expanded, or were announced. In the U.S. alone,
wind power employed 85,000 people in 2008, more than doubling 2007’s numbers. Even more encouraging, the solar energy industry employed more than 80,000 people, five times the number holding jobs in that industry in 2006.
Green job aspirants needn’t all be MIT or Caltech grads, either. Green jobs are being created in many not-so-high-tech sectors. According to the business magazine
Fast Company, the
ten best green jobs for the next decade include farmers, foresters and recyclers.
Green jobs like these could replace many traditionally blue-collar jobs lost in the recession. These new jobs will involve retrofitting and weatherizing older buildings, installing energy efficient windows, landscaping for limited water use, and repairing hybrid vehicles.
Even in Michigan,
where blue-collar workers were arguably the hardest hit by the economic downturn, there are signs of growth opportunities in green technology. In Wixom, MI, an abandoned
Ford plant is being converted to a solar and battery power manufacturing center, coming on line in 2011. The new clean energy center will house three manufacturers and employ as many as 4,000 people.
And in West Virginia, a state suffering more than its share of hard times, a window-manufacturing company is rehiring more than 400 laid-off workers to build energy-efficient windows.
Simonton Window’s resurgence is directly tied to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Act grants a 30 percent tax credit of up to $1,500 to homeowners for energy efficiency improvements. That spurred Simonton to fast track the production of new energy-efficient windows.
In mid-December, in remarks at a Virginia Home Depot,
President Barack Obama rebutted the argument that there is an inherent conflict between energy efficiency and job growth.
The President asserted that, “installing new windows and doors, insulation, roofing, sealing leaks, modernizing heating and cooling equipment —is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest things we can do to put Americans back to work while saving families money and reducing harmful emissions.”
The evidence for that approach mounts. A report released by the
US Green Building Council in November 2009 predicts that
more than 7.9 million jobs will be supported or created in just the next few years through green building industries.
In fact, says the
Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank,
new low-carbon jobs worldwide are likely to outpace job losses in traditional industries such as power generation and steel manufacturing. The Center’s new report cautions, however, that growth in green jobs is linked to governmental support internationally.
Governmental support is paying off in Europe as well, according to the
Environmental Management News. In the EU,
green jobs are already overtaking jobs in traditional high-emitting industries. Close to 3.5 million jobs have been directly created through the development of renewable energy, sustainable transport, and energy efficiency sectors.
In 2008, a
United Nations Environment Programme report on
green jobs, produced by the
Worldwatch Institute, estimated that worldwide, 2.3 million people were employed in renewable energy industries in 2006. The study anticipates a substantial increase in employment in these industries by 2030, with approximately 2.1 million people employed in wind energy, 6.3 million in solar PV and 12 million in bio-fuel-related industry and agriculture.
In Germany, the government’s emissions and renewable energy targets have produced a robust green energy industry. More workers are already employed in renewable energy than in conventional energy. By 2020, the number could top 400,000.
Great results are forecast for Asia as well, according to the UN report.
If India implements its
Action Plan on Climate Change, the UNEP study estimates an additional 10.5 million jobs in wind, solar and biofuel energy production could be created. Already a world leader in wind technology, India could create almost 300,000 more jobs if they captured just 10 percent of the global wind power market.
The
Chinese government’s renewable energy targets could lead to close to 7 million jobs, directly and indirectly. Increased energy efficiency could cost more than 17 million jobs, but the increase in green and service sector jobs could more than offset the losses, with an estimated 27 million jobs.
The Chinese word for crisis, it’s said, combines the characters for danger and opportunity. The current danger of global warming, added to a treacherous worldwide recession, could in fact provide the opportunity, and the impetus, to mitigate both through a healthy global green economy. That would be a bright spot, now, wouldn’t it?
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