If governments are bold and ambitious in developing markets for low-carbon technologies, then they will maximise the economic benefits and stand a greater chance of creating more jobs. That is the simple message from a new Global Climate Network (GCN) study currently underway in nine member countries and due to be completed and published in October 2009.
Early findings from the study suggest that creating markets for low-carbon technologies will in turn create new job opportunities and that these will be greater than the number of jobs lost in carbon-intensive sectors. For instance, the creation of renewable electricity generation markets in China as well as the prioritisation of sectors such as services that are not carbon intensive could lead to 30 million additional jobs being created by 2020.
The study also finds that the creation of markets for low-carbon technologies in one country will lead to greater opportunities in others. Interconnectedness means policy coordination is required. For instance, ambitious wind energy development inside India could create more than 243,000 jobs in India in 2020 but with ambitious global wind energy development this figure could rise to more than 288,000 Indian jobs.
Extensive reviews of literature and data analysis that are being carried out by the GCN’s nine member think tanks point to the need for bold government policy. For instance, in Germany where market creation policies have been in place for some years, more people were employed in renewable electricity generation in 2008 than in conventional carbon-intensive electricity generation.
