green jobs

By Jonathan Neale, et. al. - Campaign against Climate Change, 2014

This booklet is about hope in the face of crisis. The economy is not working. Mass unemployment has lasted for years, and will last for many more. And at some point gradual climate change is going to turn into swift catastrophe. Dangerous climate change is a consequence of the work of the hands and brains of many men and women. It will take the hands and brains of many men and women to undo the damage. So many climate activists, and several trade unions, have decided to fight to make the government create one million climate jobs. This report sets out our case. To halt climate change we need drastic cuts in the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases we put into the air. That means leaving most of the existing reserves of high carbon fuels – coal, oil and gas – in the ground. There are thousands of things we need to do to make that a reality. But three of them will make most of the difference.

We need workers to build enough wind power, solar power, wave power and tidal power to meet all our energy needs. We need workers to insulate and retrofit all our existing homes and buildings in order to conserve energy. And we need workers to run a massive public transport system powered by renewable electricity. We have people who need jobs, and jobs that must be done. So we want the government to hire a million people to do new climate jobs now in an integrated National Climate Service.Our estimate is that those workers could cut our CO2 emissions by 86% in twenty years. We can also create another half a million jobs in the supply line. And we can guarantee a new job to anyone who loses their job because of these changes.

This booklet explains how we can do all of this, and why we must. ‘Climate jobs’ are not the same as ‘green jobs’. Some green jobs help the climate, but ‘green jobs’ can mean anything – park rangers, bird wardens, pollution control, or refuse workers. All these jobs are necessary, but they do not stop climate change. Climate jobs are jobs that lead directly to cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases, and so slow down climate change. For instance, workers who build wind farms replace power stations that burn coal or oil. Workers who insulate buildings reduce the oil and gas we burn. Bus drivers reduce the amount of oil we burn in cars. We want a million new jobs. We don’t want to add up existing jobs and new jobs and say that now we have a million climate jobs. We don’t mean jobs that will be ‘created’ by some mysterious market process by 2030. We want the government to hire 90,000 new workers each month to do new climate jobs. In a year we will have a million new jobs.

Read the report (PDF).

By Will Blyth, Rob Gross, Jamie Speirs, Steve Sorrell, Jack Nicholls, Alex Dorgan, and Nick Hughes - UK Energy Research Center, November 2014

‘Green’ sectors account for as many as 3.4 million jobs in the EU, or 1.7% of all paid employment, more than car manufacturing or pharmaceuticals. Given the size of the green jobs market, and the expectation of rapid change and growth, there is a pressing need to independently analyse labour market dynamics and skills requirements in these sectors. What is more controversial is the question of whether policy driven expansion of specific green sectors actually creates jobs, particularly when the policies in question require subsidies that are paid for through bills or taxes. There are strong views on both sides of this debate. Politicians often cite employment benefits as part of the justification for investing in clean energy projects such as renewables and energy efficiency. Such claims are often backed up by project or sector-specific analyses. However, other literature is more sceptical, claiming that any intervention that raises costs in the energy sector will have an adverse impact on the economy as a whole.

The UKERC Technology and Policy Assessment (TPA) theme was set up to address such controversies through comprehensive assessment of the current evidence. This report aims to answer the following question:

“What is the evidence that policy support for investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency leads to net job creation in the implementing regions?”

The focus on net jobs here is important: whilst it is clear that jobs can be created at a local scale by spending money on new infrastructure projects, other jobs may be displaced if the new project provides activities or services that would otherwise have been provided elsewhere in the economy. Analysis of net jobs therefore needs to take account of both jobs created and jobs displaced.

Read the report (PDF).

By staff - International Forum on Globalization, October 2012

This IFG Special Report, “The Kochs and Clean Energy Jobs,” documents spending by the world’s two biggest billionaires intent on dealing a deathblow to green energy jobs and a low-carbon future.

IFG’s report reveals that the Kochs are today’s single largest funder of anti-environment and anti-worker activities, including:At least $643M in spending to block or rollback legal protections for the clean air, clean energy, clean water, and other environmental issues through sketchy scientific research, lobbying lawmakers, contributing to electoral candidates’ campaigns, media manipulation etc.At least $12M in spending to weaken the labor movement’s power through attacking collective bargaining rights, weakening worker protections, and stopping the financing for labor unions’ political activities.

Read the report (PDF).

By Mika Minio-Paluello - Scottish Green MSPs, August 2015

The North Sea oil industry says jobs are threatened by falling oil prices. But a better future for Scotland is possible. More and better jobs. A safer and more stable economy. Stronger communities. A long-term future as an energy exporter. Moving from energy colonialism to energy democracy.

This better future won't come with tax cuts for oil corporations and trying to extract every last barrel. It means changing direction – towards arapidtransition away from fossil fuels.

This will require a wholescale change of UK economic policy away from austerity and toward investmentin the new economy.

This report shows that sustainable sectors in the new economy can employ significantly more people than currently work in fossil fuel industries. Scotland can create stable jobs for those who need them, wipe out fuel poverty, do its bit to stem climate change and re-localise economies.

We researched and analysed existing and potential employment in offshore wind and marine energy, forestry and sustainable biomass, retrofitting buildings, decommissioning the North Sea, synthetic gas, and training and research.

Projections were built on conservative estimatesof the jobs required for a rapid andambitious energy transition.We didn't include new jobs in public transport, solar, waste, renewing the electricity grid, energy storage or climate adaptation.

Our calculations show that there are 156,000 workers employed in fossil fuel extraction in Scotland, of which one third are export-oriented jobs. The new economy could in comparison employ more than 200,000in 2035.

Read the report (PDF).

By Binnu Jeyakumar - Pembina Institute, November 2016

Alberta has a meaningful plan to enable the growth of a clean energy industry, with commitment to 30% of electricity generated by renewable sources by 2030, and phasing out pollution from coal-fired generation. A portion of the anticipated revenues from the province’s economy-wide carbon levy will be used to enable these efforts. This provides a great opportunity for sustainable employment growth in the clean energy sector. This is in line with the global trends of declining investment and employment in the coal industry, while investment and employment in the renewable sector expands.

The Pembina Institute has conducted an analysis of the employment potential in the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors in Alberta. Data was collected through literature reviews and from organizations involved in development of projects. The analysis used conservative estimates where there was uncertainty. The results are nevertheless encouraging and paint a positive picture for Albertans.

• In Alberta, investing in renewable sources of electricity and energy efficiencyalone would generate more jobs than those lost through the retirement of coalpower ( Figure 1).
• With a high and sustained pace of renewables growth, there are sustained levelsof employment for those engaged in related equipment installations.
• Additional investment in community energy can increase the employmentpotential by 30-50%.
• Long-term investments in modernizing infrastructure, the grid and ourelectricity system will result in further job creation with a wide diversity of skills,and in fields that are likely to see sustained growth.

Read the report (Link).

By staff - Canadian Labour Congress, July 28, 2016

The biggest challenge of our generation could also be the biggest opportunity of the century for economic growth and job creation. The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) rejects the notion that there is a fundamental conflict between the economy and jobs and environmental sustainability. Good economic and job creation policies must address all the indicators of a good quality of life — the economy, jobs, equality and the environment. Canada has an unprecedented opportunity to create new and better jobs as part of a planned transition to a much more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable economy. There is an urgent need for labour to address not only climate change with solutions which can be deployed quickly but also to seize the opportunity to create new and better jobs and ensure that climate change policies will not increase inequality in Canada.

The CLC supports a green jobs strategy and an environmental economic development strategy which places manufacturing and trade policies at the center of the climate change agenda. The CLC looks forward to any opportunity to work in collaboration with government to build support for effective and concrete measures to avert catastrophic climate change while ensuring that the path forward also builds a stronger economy with good jobs.

The CLC will work and collaborate with employers, educators and governments to minimize the costs of adjustment for workers, establish and collaborate on governance of Just Transition programs to support those workers who would be displaced by climate change or by climate change policies and mitigation measures. We believe the lynchpin of meaningful sustained climate action is retraining, re-employment and relocation for affected workers.

On behalf of the 3.3 million members of the CLC , we want to thank you for affording us the opportunity to present our views. The CLC brings together Canada’s national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 130 district labour councils whose members work in virtually all sectors of the Canadian economy, in all occupations, in all parts of Canada.

Download PDF Here.

By secretariat - United Nations, October 26, 2016

This technical paper provides an overview of the work undertaken under the Convention on a just transition of the workforce, and the creation of decent work and quality jobs (hereinafter referred to as just transition) in the context of the impact of the implementation of response measures. The paper also presents the general concept of just transition, including the drivers and objectives of such transitions, andthen discusses the linkages between just transition and the impacts of the implementation of climate change mitigation policies. It also provides guidance on how to approach just transition at the national level. This technical paper draws upon relevant information contained in:

• (1) reports on the work of the forum on the impact of the implementation of response measures, as well as submissions, presentations and statements made by Parties and observer organizations during previous sessions of the Conference of the Parties and the subsidiary bodies from 2008 to 2015;
• (2) national inventory reports, national communications, biennial reports and biennial update reports submitted by Parties;
• (3) publications by experts, international organizations and research institutes; and
• (4) inputs from the International Labour Organization

Read the report (PDF).

By Eskedar Gessesse, et. al. - Blue Green Alliance, January 2017

The following text is by Elizabeth Perry, Work and Climate Change Report, February 3, 2017:

Following on the January 2017 report US Energy and Employment  from the U.S. Department of Energy, more evidence of the healthy growth of the clean energy industry comes in a report by the Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps and Meister consultants.  Now Hiring: The Growth of America’s Clean Energy and Sustainability Jobs compiles the latest statistics from diverse sources, and concludes that “sustainability” accounts for an estimated 4.5 million jobs (up from 3.4 million in 2011) in the U.S. in 2015. Sustainability jobs are defined as those in energy efficiency and renewable energy, as well as waste reduction, natural resources conservation and environmental education, vehicle manufacturing, public sector, and corporate sustainability jobs.

Statistics drill down to wages and working conditions – for example, average wages for energy efficiency jobs are almost $5,000 above the national median, and wages for solar workers are above the national median of $17.04 per hour. Comparing clean energy with the fossil fuel industry, the report states that the 1.4 million jobs in energy efficiency construction and installation alone is more than double the number of workers in fossil fuel mining, extraction and electric power generation combined. Now Hiring states that for every $1 million invested in building retrofits and industrial efficiency, 8 direct or indirect jobs are created; in comparison, 3 are created by a comparable investment in the fossil fuel industry. This final comparison of job multiplier effect is based on “Green versus brown: Comparing the employment impacts of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and fossil fuels using an input-output model” by Heidi Garrett Pelletier at PERI, and appears in the February 2017 issue of Economic Modelling.

Read the report (Link).

By staff - Blue Green Alliance, August 2016

Repairing the US nation’s aging natural gas pipelines has the potential to create and support quality, family-sustaining jobs and drive billions in investment. The BlueGreen Alliance’s RECAP campaign was developed to accelerate the repair and replacement of this network to create hundreds of thousands additional jobs while addressing the urgent threat of climate change.

By tripling the rate of repair for leak-prone sections of the nation’s natural gas distribution system, the U.S. can create more than 300,000 good, family-supporting jobs across the economy, save consumers $1.5 billion in charges for lost gas, and prevent the emission of 81 million metric tons of climate change pollution—the equivalent of taking 17 million cars off the road for a year. The economic benefit would be Gross Domestic Product $30 billion higher in a decade versus a business-as-usual 30 year timeline.

At the very least, these jobs are an alternative to construction of new, unneeded, climate destroying gas pipelines.

Read the report (PDF).