Fight Against Climate Change To Create Millions Of Green Jobs

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Emergence of a ''green economy'' is now clearly visible and efforts to tackle climate change could result in millions of ''green jobs'' in India and other countries, says a UN sponsored report.

India could generate 900,000 jobs by 2025 in biomass gasification of which 300,000 would be in the manufacturing of stoves and 600,000 in the fuel supply chain and other areas.

As many as 600,000 people in China are already employed in solar thermal making and installing products such as solar water heaters.

In Nigeria, a bio fuels industry based on cassava and sugar cane crops might sustain an industry employing 200,000 people; and in South Africa, 25,000 previously unemployed people are now employed in conservation as part of the 'Working for Water' initiative.

The new report entitled Green Jobs: Towards Decent work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World, says changing patterns of employment and investment resulting from efforts to reduce climate change and its effects are already generating new jobs in many sectors and economies, and could create millions more in both developed and developing countries.

The report was funded and commissioned by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) under a joint Green Jobs Initiative with the International Labour Office (ILO), and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Organization of Employers (IOE), which together represent millions of workers and employers worldwide. It was produced by the Worldwatch Institute, with technical assistance from the Cornell University Global Labour Institute.

It says that the global market for environmental products and services is projected to double from 1,370 billion dollars per year at present to 2,740 billion dollars by 2020, according to a study cited in the report.

Half of this market is in energy efficiency and the balance in sustainable transport, water supply, sanitation and waste management. In Germany, for example, environmental technology is to grow fourfold to 16 per cent of industrial output by 2030, with employment in this sector surpassing that in the country's big machine tool and automotive industries.

Sectors that will be particularly important in terms of their environmental, economic and employment impact are energy supply, in particular renewable energy, buildings and construction, transportation, basic industries, agriculture and forestry.

Clean technologies are already the third largest sector for venture capital after information and biotechnology in the United States, while green venture capital in China more than doubled to 19 per cent of total investment in recent years.

As many as 2.3 million people have in recent years found new jobs in the renewable energy sector alone, and the potential for job growth in the sector is huge. Employment in alternative energies may rise to 2.1 million in wind and 6.3 million in solar power by 2030.

Renewable energy generates more jobs than employment in fossil fuels. Projected investments of US0 billion by 2030 would translate into at least 20 million additional jobs in the renewable energy sector.