Climate response creates 10m jobs

By Brendan Montague - The Ecologist, July 7, 2021

Renewable energy projects already in the pipeline will create 625,000 jobs across the UK - potentially replacing 90 percent of the losses from the Covid-19 crisis, according to a new report commissioned by the European Climate Foundation.

A total of 13,000 projects identified globally are expected to create 10 million jobs across 47 different countries, with US$2 trillion of investment building one Terawatt of renewable generation capacity.

A spokesperson said: "In the UK, green energy offers enormous potential for sustained job creation and economic growth, especially in Northern England and Scotland."

Recovery

The new report, authored by experts Ernst & Young (EY), has identified 540 mainly solar and wind power projects in the UK which are about to begin, creating 438,667 jobs. When storage, transmission, and distribution projects are added these numbers rise to 668 projects and as many as 625,000 jobs.

Serge Colle, an EY global energy advisor, said: “This new report highlights the huge potential to accelerate private sector renewables investment through applying the best government policies and regulatory frameworks through global collaboration between governments and the private sector.

"This multi-country report, that has taken a bottom-up approach, maps the pipeline of ‘shovel ready’ investable projects that could be unlocked to enable a green recovery.”

The EY global study covers 47 countries, and as such only lays out part of the total global opportunity, which is considerably larger. 

Robust

In addition to the global study, there are three national level ‘deep-dive’ reports written by EY, commissioned by the ECF, which are today being launched in the UK, Turkey, and South Africa. 

In South Africa, 184 “shovel ready” projects were identified totalling 10.3GW that will enhance energy security, increase total generating capacity by 18 percent, and create 102,000 local jobs in construction, installation, operation and maintenance, and another 53,000 jobs in the supply chain.

In Turkey, the visible pipeline of 238 projects to build 11.9GW of renewable energy represents a $27bn investment opportunity that would support 110,000 Turkish jobs.

This would accelerate growth in Turkey’s economy and offers an opportunity to establish a robust renewable energy supply chain, with the potential to create regional industrial clusters to ‘level up’ specific coal transition regions.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author.