Published July 11, 2008 10:30 AM
Coal Industry Hands Out Pink Slips While Green Collar
Jobs Take Off
Washington, D.C.-A transition to renewable energy sources promises
significant global job gains at a time when the coal industry has been
hemorrhaging jobs for years, according to the latest Vital Signs Update
released by the Worldwatch Institute.
The coal, oil, and natural gas industries require steadily fewer jobs as
high-cost production equipment takes the place of human capital. Many
hundreds of thousands of coal mining jobs have been shed in China, the
United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and South Africa during the last
two decades, sometimes in the face of expanding production. In the United
States alone, coal industry employment has fallen by half in the last 20
years, despite a one-third increase in production.
"Renewables are poised to tackle our energy crisis and create
millions of new jobs worldwide," according to Worldwatch Senior Researcher
Michael Renner. "Meanwhile, fossil fuel jobs are increasingly becoming
fossils themselves, as coal mining communities and others worry about their
livelihoods."
Strong government support has allowed Germany, Spain, and Denmark to emerge
as leaders in renewable energy development-and green jobs. The German
government reports that the country was home to an estimated 259,000 direct
and indirect jobs in the renewables sector in 2006. This figure is expected
to reach 400,000-500,000 by 2020, and 710,000 by 2030. In the United States,
the renewables sector employed close to 200,000 people directly and 246,000
indirectly in 2006, due mostly to leadership at the state level. China is
rapidly catching up in manufacturing of solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind
turbines and is already the dominant global force in solar hot water
development.
An estimated 2.3 million people worldwide currently work either directly in
renewables or indirectly in supplier industries. The solar thermal industry
employs at least 624,000 people, the wind power industry 300,000, and the
solar PV industry 170,000. More than 1 million people work in the biomass
and biofuels sector, while small-scale hydropower employs 39,000 individuals
and geothermal employs 25,000.
These figures are expected to swell substantially as private investment and
government support for alternative energy sources grow. The most optimistic
analyses project that global wind power employment will increase to as much
as 2.1 million in 2030 and 2.8 million in 2050. Similar projections estimate
that worldwide solar PV production alone could create as many as 6.3 million
jobs by 2030.
"Government officials now have yet another reason to put the full weight of
their support behind renewables," said Renner. "In addition to protecting
our planet and phasing out an increasingly limited resource, policies that
support renewable energy also support job creation."
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Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036
Tel 202.452.1999 - Fax 202.296.7365 -
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