On climate and jobs
1. A green transition, including a shift to renewable energy, the manufacturing of electric vehicles and construction of energy-efficient buildings, will create 24 million jobs by 2030, far more than the 6 million that could be lost.
2. By 2030, among 163 economic sectors, only 14 are predicted to have employment losses of more than 10,000 jobs worldwide, and only two, refining and extracting petroleum, show losses of 1 million or more jobs.
3. If cities in 21 emerging markets prioritize climate-smart growth in their recovery plans, they stand to gain as much as $7 trillion in investments and could create 144 million new jobs by 2030.
4. Under certain conditions, jobs created by the renewable energy industry could total 42 million worldwide by 2050 – more than enough to offset jobs lost in fossil fuel industries, with more people able to find employment in manufacturing, installing, operating and maintaining renewable energy systems.
5. Jobs in renewable energy reached 11.5 million globally in 2019.
6. Heat stress could reduce total working hours worldwide by 2.2 per cent – a productivity loss equivalent to 80 million full-time jobs — and could cut global gross domestic product by $2.4 trillion in 2030.
7. A circular economy, based on the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle, could create around 6 million new jobs in recycling and waste management.
8. Solar photovoltaic industries created some 3.8 million jobs in 2019. Other large generators of new jobs in renewable energy were biofuels at 2.5 million jobs, hydropower at close to 2 million jobs and wind at 1.2 million jobs.
9. Jobs in renewables are more gender balanced than in the broader energy field, with women holding 32 per cent of the total in 2019. In fossil fuels, they have only 21 per cent.
Sources: ILO (1, 2), World Bank (3), IRENA (4), IRENA (5, 8, 9), ILO (6), ILO (7)