Clean energy jobs growth worldwide surpasses fossil-fuel sector jobs which saw a decline
Energize Weekly, November 29, 2023
Clean energy employment is growing more rapidly than fossil-fuel jobs across the globe and accounted for the majority of the 67 million jobs in the energy sector in 2022, according to an International Energy Agency (IEA) report.
“More people work in the energy sector today than in 2019, almost exclusively due to growth in clean energy, which now employs more workers than fossil fuels,” the IEA employment report said.
The clean energy sector added 4.7 million jobs globally from pre-pandemic levels, reaching 35 million, while fossil fuels jobs recovered more slowly after 2020 layoffs and are still about 1.3 million below pre-pandemic employment levels, at 32 million.
Overall, clean energy sector jobs were up 5 percent and fossil fuel-related employment was down 4 percent between 2019 and 2022.
More than half of job growth in this period came from five sectors: solar photovoltaic (PV), wind, electric vehicles (EVs) and battery manufacturing, heat pumps and critical minerals mining. The five added more than one million jobs since 2019.
“Clean energy investment has grown by 40 percent over the past two years, creating strong demand from leading energy firms to bring on more workers in clean sectors,” the IEA said.
Clean energy jobs increase in every region of the world, led by the Chinese workforce’s reorientation toward clean energy. About 60 percent of China’s energy workforce holds clean sector jobs, a 10 percent increase over 2019.
The three million Chinese workers in clean energy manufacturing accounting of 80 percent of solar PV and EV jobs worldwide.
While fossil-fuel sector jobs declined globally, Indonesia, India and the Middle East did see an uptick in employment over 2019 levels.
Energy sector jobs, however, require more high-skilled workers than most other industries and the IEA said that is creating a labor shortage.
Based on International Labor Organization definitions, 36 percent of energy jobs are within high-skilled occupations compared with 27 percent in the broader economy.
“Job vacancy rates, a key indicator of labor shortages, have been rising for years in many major economies in the construction, manufacturing, utility and other energy-related sectors,” the agency said.
Construction jobs, which will make up nearly half of new energy-related jobs between now and 2030 are facing particularly acute shortages, limiting the availability of labor needed to install clean energy technologies and retrofit buildings, according to IEA.
Many fossil-fuel workers have the skills and specializations that could fill clean energy roles and the IEA estimates half of workers in fossil-fuel sectors who face redundancy risks this decade have skills demanded by growing clean energy sectors.
With as little as four weeks of retraining many of these workers could switch into new roles, enabling as many as 1.2 million workers involved in building and installing fossil-fuel heating units to shift to heat pump systems, in a scenario aimed at attaining net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases.
Similarly, IEA said four million auto workers could move from internal combustion engine manufacturing to EVs between now and 2030.
The transition is particularly risky for coal miners in emerging and developing countries where the workforce shrank by 225,000 jobs between 2019 and 2022 and it is projected to lose another 1.4 million jobs by 2030. Most of the losses are related to improvements in labor productivity and other efficiencies, not emission reduction efforts.
As with heating system workers and auto workers, programs could be developed to transfer coal miners to other sectors, such as critical minerals. The IEA analysis found that more than 180,000 jobs were added in critical mineral mining in the last three years, and 40 percent of current coal miners work within 124 miles of a critical mineral deposit.
“Energy employment is on course to increase further in 2023, in tandem with an escalation in investment for both clean energy and fossil fuels,” the IEA report said. “In 2023, total energy employment is set to grow by an estimated 4.5 percent. Clean energy employment is forecast to reach new highs, while a resurgence in new oil and gas projects, prompted by the energy crisis, will lead to a rebound in fossil-fuel jobs in 2023, particularly for the construction of midstream infrastructure.”
