"Green collar" jobs hold key to economic recovery

Many of the US workers currently suffering as a result of the recent economic downturn possess the very skills that will be required to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy.

That is the conclusion of a major new report released yesterday by a coalition of labour and environmental groups, which advocates a significant increase in clean tech investment as a means of tackling unemployment, enhancing wages and delivering low carbon infrastructure.

"This report demonstrates that the quickest way to put Americans back to work is through investments in solving global warming," said Dave Foster, executive director of the Blue Green Alliance. "The jobs we'll create are the very jobs our country is losing in the current recession."

The report, titled Job Opportunities for the Green Economy, looked at six cleantech sectors – building retrofitting, mass transit, fuel-efficient automobiles, wind power, solar power and cellulosic biomass fuels – and concluded that 45 occupations employing over 14 million people across the US could benefit from increased investment in green measures.

The report also studied employment conditions in 12 states – Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin – and found that many of the skills required to build low carbon infrastructure were already in place.

Report co-author, Robert Pollin of the Department of Economics and Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, said that the research highlighted the extent to which many "green collar jobs" could be filled through relatively little re-skilling of the existing workforce.

For example, the report argues that wind farm projects will create jobs for sheet metal workers, machinists and truck drivers, while increasing the energy efficiency of buildings through will rely on roofers, insulators and electricians.

With the US Senate currently debating new legislation designed to pump billions of dollars into low carbon technologies, environmentalists and labour groups welcomed the report as evidence that the transition to a low carbon economy can deliver economic benefits.

"Everyone is talking about how the transition to a clean energy future will create millions of new 'green-collar' jobs," said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. "This report shows that millions of Americans are already working in exactly the kinds of jobs we'll need to build that clean energy future. Those millions and millions more—from steelworkers to software engineers—stand to benefit from implementing the clean energy solutions we need to fight global warming."

Leo W. Gerard, international president of the United Steelworkers union, said that increased investment in green projects would also help reverse US job losses. "The commitment to a clean energy economy will not only lead to quality jobs in manufacturing unions and the building trades, it will help stop good-paying jobs from continuing to be exported," he argued.