Green economy can create millions of new jobs: UN report

New Delhi, Oct 3 : The global market for environmental products and services is projected to double from 1.37 trillion doller per year at present to 2.74 trillion doller by 2020, creating millions of new 'green jobs', says a recent report commissioned by a number of UN organisations.

India can generate 900,000 jobs by 2025 in the area of biogas alone. Of these, 300,000 would be in the manufacturing of stoves and 600,000 in areas such as processing into briquettes and pellets and the fuel supply chain, says the report.

Called 'Green Jobs: Towards Decent work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World', the report was commissioned by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) under a joint Green Jobs Initiative with the International Labour Office (ILO), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the International Organization of Employers (IOE). The Worldwatch Institute produced it with technical assistance from the Cornell University Global Labour Institute.

However, the report also finds that the process of climate change, already underway, will continue to have negative effects on workers and their families, especially those whose livelihoods depend on agriculture and tourism.

The report says too few green jobs are being created for the most vulnerable: the 1.3 billion working poor (43 percent of the global workforce) in the world with earnings too low to lift them and their dependants above the poverty threshold of $2 per person, per day, or for the estimated 500 million youth who will be seeking work over the next 10 years.

The authors of the report say that climate change, adaptation to it and efforts to arrest it by reducing emissions have far-reaching implications for economic and social development, for production and consumption patterns and thus for employment, incomes and poverty reduction.

Other key findings of the report include:

* The global market for environmental products and services is projected to double from $1.37 trillion per year at present to $2.74 trillion by 2020.

* 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 percent 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 US, while green venture capital in China more than doubled to 19 percent of total investment in recent years.

* 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 $630 billion by 2030 would translate into at least 20 million additional jobs in the renewable energy sector.

* In agriculture, 12 million could be employed in biomass for energy and related industries. In a country like Venezuela, an ethanol blend of 10 percent in fuels might provide one million jobs in the sugarcane sector by 2012.

* A worldwide transition to energy-efficient buildings would create millions of jobs, as well as "greening" existing employment for many of the estimated 111 million people already working in the construction sector.

* Investments in improved energy efficiency in buildings could generate an additional 2-3.5 million green jobs in Europe and the US alone, with the potential much higher in developing countries.

* Recycling and waste management employ an estimated 10 million in China and 500,000 in Brazil today. This sector is expected to grow rapidly in many countries in the face of escalating commodity prices.

--IANS