Asia Likely To Have 55% Share Of Global Renewable Energy Jobs: IRENA

IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency) recently released its world energy transition outlook report. Their report mentioned that Asia is expected to account for a 55% share of global renewable energy jobs, followed by Europe (14%), US (13%) and Sub-Saharan Africa (9%) till 2050 under 1.5-degree scenario. It adds that, the jobs are unevenly distributed as, regionally and technologically.

It adds that, factors like the size of populations and economies influence regional distribution, affect countries deployment of renewable energy and whether they have significant domestic supply chains in place. The study shows that, under the 1.5°C scenario, there will be 140 million jobs in 2050 compared to 67 million today. It anticipates creation of 40 million more jobs created under the Planned Energy Scenario (PES) expects a compounded growth of 2.8% and an annual growth of 0.4%. 

It finds that, the solar energy jobs are expected to rise to around 18 million (i.e. around 45% of the total renewable energy jobs) by 2050. It finds that, under the 1.5°C Scenario, it can lead to almost a four-fold increase compared to 2021. Additionally, the wind energy will also see high job creation and is expected to rise fivefold from 2021. It’s expected to reach over 6 million (around 17% of the total renewable energy jobs), whereas bioenergy jobs will grow from over 4 million (33% of renewable jobs) in 2021 to over 10 million (27% of renewables jobs) in 2050.

It mentions that, in Europe, economic disparities may also be amplified. Meanwhile, it anticipates that, the emerging economies like India and China have potential for significant growth, that can reshape the global economic landscape.

IRENA mentions in its report that, a few G20 countries, such as India and China, are among the few investment driver with the strongest factor boosting results over the PES (Figure S3).

 

 

It elaborates that, other factors such as, trade are also an important driver for countries such as Canada, China and South Africa, due to their economic structures. For the vast majority of developing countries, induced social-directed payments are an important, and sometimes dominant, factor in GDP differences between the scenarios. The report adds that, the 1.5°C pathway would create more employment throughout the economy. This scenario can lead to, in an average annual term, 1.7% higher economy-wide employment than the PES over the 2023-2050 period (Figure S4).