NEW ENERGY BEATS OLD ENERGY BIGTIME FOR JOBS

Clean energy to create more jobs than coal: study
Alister Doyle (w/Michael Roddy), September 13, 2009 (Reuters)

SUMMARY
If the exigencies of global climate change and national security are not enough to drive a transition to New Energy, maybe the fact that the development of New Energy and Energy Efficiency is the best way to turn around the impacts of the 2008-09 financial crisis will make it clear the time for change has come.

working for the climate; Renewable Energy & The Green Job [R]Evolution, from the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) and Greenpeace International, is a thorough and comprehensive report demonstrating there are 2.7 million more jobs (net) to be had from moving to New Energy than in staying with Old Energy.

Support for the transition to a New Energy economy depends most on the continued commitment of the G-20 nations, who dedicated significant potions of their $3 trillion stimulus funds to a global "green new deal" in 2008-09. Greenpeace and EREC contend the G-20 nations should dedicate a further €110 billion per year for mitigation, adaptation and stopping deforestation in developing countries when they meet at the international summit on global climate change in Copenhagen in December.

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COMMENTARY
There was a time when New Energy was a barely articulated dream of environmentalists and nature lovers that most average folks, hustling for the Corvette and the hottest lovers, didn’t relate to. No more.

As Al Gore has said, undeniable concerns with national security, the global climate and the world economy all have the same resolution: New Energy.

To meet the dictates of science and cut greenhouse gas emissions enough to avoid the worst consequences of global climate change, the entire world must build an emissions-free New Energy infrastructure and institute Energy Efficiency everywhere possible.

Doing so will move the world’s economies away from reliance on imported fossil fuels obtained in conflict zones and eliminate the bases for the associated national security threats by allowing every nation to develop reliance on its own domestic sources.

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Doing that means new jobs, jobs, jobs, far more than are now available from dying and poisonous Old Energy sources.

Seem too good to be true? Take a closer look. Greenpeace International’s October 2008 Energy [R]Evolution shows how to technically and financially increase New Energy capacity 9 times over and replace nuclear and most coal. (See OBAMA, GORE, GREENPEACE - HOW LONG WILL THIS BE GOIN' ON?)

Under the Energy [R]Evolution scenario, there would be an overall increase of around 2 million New Energy jobs over 20 years. Sticking with Old Energy will cause a half million energy sector job losses between 2010 and 2030.

The Energy [R]Evolution policy will see 8+ million jobs in New Energy and Energy Efficiency in 2030, over 3 times the jobs in the "business as usual" scenario.

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Underscoring New Energy’s job potential, European trade union leaders endorsed the Greenpeace plan.

By 2030:
(1) The power sector will gain 2 million jobs, 2.7 million more than the “business as usual” scenario which will see net job losses. With “business as usual,” coal will provide the most energy sector jobs, but fewer jobs than would come from a New Energy economy.
(2) “Business as usual” means a net loss of 500,000 energy sector jobs because of the absence of New Energy gorwth and employment.
(3) The coal, gas, oil and diesel sectors will provide around 2.5 million fewer jobs in a New Energy economy.
(4) A New Energy economy would support 6.9 million jobs, a net gain of ~5.3 million jobs.

The report’s authors acknowledge these numbers are merely best estimates. What is more indicative, even from the conservative numbers used in the report, is the underlying trend the numbers suggest. The trend is clear. Old Energy is not the way to go. Besides failing to support reductions in climate change-inducing GhGs and sustaining dependence on energy sources that threaten national security, Old Energy is bad for the economy.

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New Energy virtually “defied” the global recession and grew 5% while the economy tanked, with investment of $148 billion in 2007 to investment of $155 billion in 2008. New Energy alos looks to be one of the sectors most ready to recover from the financial downturn of 2008-09. ~40 gigawatts of installed New Energy capacity were added in 2008. For the first time in history, there was ~$10 billion more invested in New Energy than in Old Energy.

China, Germany, Japan, the U.S. and Spain led the way. China, where jobs in coal and coal mining are expected to contract in the coming decades, will likely see the biggest growth in the world in the solar PV and wind energy manufacturing and installation areas.

Even if the world continues to rely on Old Energy (“business as usual”), 500,000 energy sector jobs will likely be lost between 2010 and 2030. The projected 37% increase in electricity generation from coal will be met by fewer people. Natural gas use will likely increase, but even with a 50% rise in output to meet rising demand, total energy sector jobs would not reach 2010 levels in 2030.

The Greenpeace/EREC study predicts the cost of power generation in a New Energy economy, at 13 cents per kilowatt-hour, will be lower overall, averaged over a full energy mix, than if reliance on Old Energy (“business as usual”) continues, which would see a power generation price of 14 cents per kilowatt-hour. (Calculations assume a price for emissions, significant increases in Energy Efficiency and concomitantly significant decreases in energy consumption.)

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To achieve the transition to a New Energy economy that will provide the projected job and other benefits will require aggressive New Energy policies and targets. Greenpeace describes the instituting of such policies as a responsibility governments have to their citizens.

Governmental inaction would condemn citizens to job losses as well as the environmental and economic evils of Old Energy. Environmental evils range from the harmful health effects of air pollution to the ravages of global climate change. Economic evils include rising power costs and vulnerability to the vagaries of fossil fuel-rich nations such Russia's handling of the natural gas supply to Europe and Venezuela's handling of the oil supply to North America.

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A New Energy economy will supply jobs to those in the Old Energy industries who lose out. Wind turbine and solar PV manufacturing can replace coal industry jobs. Wind manufacturing is already the 2nd biggest steel consumer after cars in Germany. Geothermal drilling can put oil and gas industry workers to work. Solar power plant construction can employ power plant designers and builders. Wave energy and offshore wind installations can employ the offshore oil rig workforce. Any number of blue collar workers can be trained to deploy Energy Efficiency.

The study identifies 4 categories of policy incentives urgently needed to spur the New Energy economy: (1) A new international climate agreement to replace the Kyoto Accord, hopefully at the UN summit in Copenhagen in December, that forces the peaking of world GhGs by 2015; (2) National policies that drive New Energy and Energy Efficiency expansion and phase out all support to Old Energy and inefficiency, beginning with the banning of investment in new coal, oil and nuclear power plants; (3) New Energy and Energy Efficiency targets, tariffs, and support for innovation to grow infrastructure; (4) Standards to increase efficiencies and reduce emissions and energy use.

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QUOTES
- From the working the climate study: “Investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy helps the economy by increasing employment in the power sector, while reducing energy costs and easing the over-use of precious natural resources. By making the switch to renewable energy we can halt the carbon dioxide building up in the atmosphere and create a path away from irreversible climate change.”
- From the study: “Will we look into the eyes of our children and confess that we had the opportunity, but lacked the courage? That we had the technology, but lacked the vision?”

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- From the study: “Now is the time to commit to a truly secure and sustainable energy future – a future built on clean technologies, economic development and the creation of millions of new jobs.”
- From the study: “Approximately 800,000 new jobs are created between 2020 and 2030 [by the transition to a New Energy economy].”
- Guy Ryder, General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation: "The union movement, as well as the authors of this report, believe ambitious climate action by world leaders can and must be a driver for sustainable economic growth and social progress…"