From offshore wind farms in Scotland to floating solar power plants in Vietnam, about 13,000 renewable energy projects in nearly 50 states are waiting for finance — and could create up to 10 million green jobs, consultancy EY-Parthenon said in a report yesterday.
EY-Parthenon said the projects offered US$2 trillion in investment opportunities that would generate jobs locally and in supply chains, and would help slash climate-heating emissions and secure a green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
EY-Parthenon global energy adviser Serge Colle said the research showed that there was “huge potential to accelerate private-sector renewables investment” with the right government policies and regulation around the world.
If the projects identified were implemented in the next three years, they would more than double the rate of global renewables deployment, while delivering 22 percent of emissions reductions promised this decade by the 47 states covered in the research, which include G20 nations, the report said.
That would amount to 9 percent of the emissions cuts needed by 2030 to keep global warming to the most ambitious target of 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, added the report commissioned by the European Climate Foundation (ECF).
The biggest potential benefits for workers are in China and the US, where the projects could create about 2 million and 1.8 million jobs respectively.
India, Australia, Brazil, the UK and Canada could also generate hundreds of thousands of jobs each from boosting offshore and onshore wind, solar and hydropower capacity.
In the UK, greater investment in green energy could support sustained job creation and economic growth, especially in northern England and Scotland, where large wind farms are being developed, the research said.
The UK pipeline of projects seeking finance includes 540 mainly solar and wind power proposals, with the potential for close to 439,000 new jobs, the report said.
It said that total jobs created could rise to about 625,000 when power storage, transmission and distribution are added.
That would mitigate 90 percent of job losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, the ECF said.
Tim Lord, a net-zero expert with the UK-based Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, said that in many places workforces do not yet have the skills to redeploy into clean technologies.
“This transition is not as simple as you take an offshore oil-and-gas worker and retrain them to operate a wind turbine, and everyone is happy. Clearly there will be some disconnect,” said Lord, who was not involved with the EY-Parthenon report.
Coordination between governments and firms would be essential to develop the local infrastructure and skills needed to expand generation and use of renewable energy, which would in turn help attract necessary investment, he said.
The challenge would be even greater in developing nations where large swathes of the population lack access to electricity and strong markets have yet to be fostered, he added.
November’s COP26 climate summit in Scotland would be key to providing the incentives for emerging economies to shift away from fossil fuels and into cleaner power — but that would only happen if richer nations show a clear commitment to decarbonization, Lord said.
“If you have a situation where lower-income countries feel like bigger countries are pulling their weight ... then I think you can start to see that kind of positive cycle being created around investment and people taking this seriously,” he said.
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