The advocacy group’s latest report, “Renewable Energy and Jobs – Annual Review 2017,” shows that the number of people employed in renewable energy jobs around the world in 2016 rose over 1.1 percent above 2015 figures.
The overall figures contribute to the nations of the world achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular, the target goal of 7.2 (By 2030, to increase substantially the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix), reports IISD’s SDG.
“Falling costs and enabling policies have steadily driven up investment and employment in renewable energy worldwide since IRENA’s first annual assessment in 2012 when just over seven million people were working in the sector,” said IRENA director-general Adnan Z. Amin, reports Clean Tech Canada.
Noting that the number of jobs in the wind and solar sector had more than doubled, he added, “As the scales continue to tip in favour of renewables, we expect that the number of people working in the renewables sector could reach 24 million by 2030, more than offsetting fossil-fuel job losses and becoming a major economic driver around the world.”
To be more specific, while employment in the renewable energy sector has been rising, jobs in the coal industry, globally, have been falling in many countries. Coal India, the world’s largest coal producer, has cut its workforce by 36 percent since 2002.
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And in the European Union and the United States, coal-mining jobs have continued to decline over the past 30 years. Jobs in the coal industry in the U.S. dropped from 150,000 in 1987 to 51,000 in 2017, based on federal statistics, reports Inside Climate News.
Here’s a brief rundown of some important facts on renewable energy from the IRENA report:
1.0 China, Brazil, the United States, India, Japan, and Germany account for most of the renewable energy jobs worldwide. China employs 3.64 million people while the U.S. employs 806,000.
2.0 Solar photovoltaic was the largest employer worldwide. In the U.S. – Jobs in the solar industry increased 17 times faster than the overall economy in 2016.
3.0 New wind farms added 7.0 percent to overall employment figures, bringing employment figures up to 1.2 million jobs.
4.0 Globally, 62 percent of renewables jobs are located in Asia. Installation and manufacturing jobs continue to shift to the region, particularly in Malaysia and Thailand.
5.0 Africa is making great strides in the development of utility-scale renewable energy installations. South Africa and North Africa now account for three-quarters of the continent’s 62,000 renewables jobs.
