BARCELONA: The number of jobs in renewable energy worldwide increased in 2020, despite the huge economic disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the growing industry holding up better than fossil fuels, international agencies said on Thursday.
In an annual report on clean energy employment, the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) said there were 12 million jobs in renewable energy and its supply chains last year, a third of them in solar power.
That was a rise from 11.5 million jobs in 2019.
"The year 2020 demonstrated that not even a global pandemic can slow the advance of renewable energy," wrote Irena director-general Francesco La Camera in a foreword.
The Covid-19 crisis, together with the challenges of global warming, "reinforce the need for a just and inclusive transition toward a clean, reliable energy supply and sustainable, healthy, climate-friendly jobs", he added.
Achieving a fair shift from coal, oil and gas to solar, wind, bioenergy and hydropower would require efforts to train workers in new skills and build local supply chains, the report said.
Social protection would also be needed for those who lose jobs in high-carbon activities like coal mining.
Lockdowns to contain the Covid-19 pandemic did disrupt some parts of the renewables industry in 2020, it noted, including a slight dip in employment in biofuels due to lower transport use.
Off-grid solar lighting sales also suffered in developing countries but companies were able to limit job losses with financial help from governments.
Martha Newton, the ILO's deputy director-general for policy, said the continued growth of renewable energy jobs worldwide amid the pandemic was "a very encouraging signal".
But gaining the maximum social and economic benefits from the clean energy shift would require looking beyond just the number of jobs.
"We need an approach to energy transition conducive to decent work creation", meaning jobs that boosted equity, security and human dignity, she said.
Women at work?
The report stressed the need to bring more women into renewable energy jobs, though they hold 32% of those, on average, compared to 22% in the oil and gas sector.
Claver Gatete, Rwanda's minister of infrastructure, said his East African nation was encouraging girls to study engineering, offering them internships in clean energy firms and setting gender targets for the industry.
Globally in 2020, the solar photovoltaics sector accounted for about four million jobs, biofuels for 2.4 million, hydropower for 2.2 million and wind energy for 1.25 million, the report said.
Nearly four in 10 renewable energy jobs were in China, with Brazil, India, the US and the EU holding the next highest numbers.
Other places expanding clean energy employment include Vietnam and Malaysia, which export solar equipment; Indonesia and Colombia, with large agricultural supply chains for biofuels; and Mexico and Russia, where wind power was growing.
In sub-Saharan Africa, solar jobs were expanding in countries from Nigeria to Togo and South Africa.
The authors of the report estimated that if governments limited global warming to 1.5ºC above preindustrial levels, their most ambitious goal, the renewable energy sector could grow to 38 million jobs by 2030 and 43 million by 2050.
That was about double the number that would be created under current climate action plans and pledges, which fell short of meeting the Paris Agreement goals, they said.
Sharan Burrow, the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation which represents 200 million workers in more than 160 countries, said every part of the economy would need to transition to a greener model to cut emissions to net zero.
That's "a good news story", she said, because for every 10 jobs in renewable energy, five to 10 were created in manufacturing supply chains and more in services, transport and logistics.
If the jobs come with good conditions, a minimum wage and labour rights such as the ability to form unions and bargain collectively, "that's about development, that's about community renewal, that's about aspirations", Burrow said.
REUTERS