A report from the USA’s Brookings Institute has found that the nation’s booming clean energy sector offers more opportunity and better pay for many American workers than other jobs in the national economy – and also now employs more than the fossil fuel industry.
With timely relevance for political debate here in Australia, the report also recommends congress put a price on carbon, and fund more research into renewable energy innovation to drive manufacturing and exports of clean technology.
The "Sizing the Clean Economy: A National and Regional Green Jobs Assessment" report, defines "clean," or "green energy" jobs as those that produce goods or services providing an environmental benefit.
The sector currently employs 2.7 million people in the US, from manufacturing to waste management and transport services; more than the entire fossil fuel industry, but less than the IT industry.
Pay for those employed in clean energy jobs was found to be 13 percent higher than the national median, with the report finding a disproportionate number of low-to-middle skilled workers in relatively high-paid "green-collar" positions.
The clean energy sector was one of the only industries immune from the effects of the 2007-08 global financial crash, which has left the American job market reeling.
A small, yet significant portion of the clean economy responding to energy-related challenges, including the solar photovoltaic (PV) energy, wind energy, fuel cells and smart grid technology has "added jobs at a torrid pace, albeit from small bases."
"The clean economy grew more slowly in aggregate than the national economy between 2003 and 2010, but newer ‘cleantech’ segments produced explosive job gains and the clean economy outperformed the nation during the recession," the report states.
Roughly 26 percent of all clean energy jobs were in the manufacturing sector, with clean energy exports earning double the prices per job of other exports (USD$20,000 vs. $10,000).
The report exhorts US government to take a role in further developing the clean economy or risk falling behind in capitalising on global demand for green technology.
"Congress and the federal government could help by putting a price on carbon, passing a national clean energy standard (CES) and moving to ensure more rational cost recovery on new transmission links for the delivery of renewable energy to urban load centers."
The full report can be viewed here (PDF).
