“Currently, an estimated 18 million people work in the energy industries – a number that is likely to increase, not decrease, to 26 million or by over 50 per cent if we reach our global climate targets,” said co-author Dr Johannes Emmerling, an environmental economist at the RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment in Italy.
“Manufacturing and installation of renewable energy sources could potentially become about one third of the total of these jobs, for which countries can also compete in terms of location.”
The study is based on a global dataset of 'job footprints' in 50 countries, including major fossil fuel-producing economies. The dataset used in this study included data from China, India, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and other additions. The team combined their dataset with an integrated assessment model to make their employment predictions. Previously, analysis has almost always relied on jobs data for OECD...