Worldwatch report for UNEP - Green Jobs - 2007

Worldwatch. 2007. Green Jobs: Toward Sustainable Work in a Low-Carbon World (preliminary report). Prepared for the UNEP, ILO, ITUC Green Jobs Initiative. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Program. www.unep.org/civil_society/Publications/index.asp

• Final report is due out in April 2008. Skimmed this report - did not read many sections.
• Thorough (133pp.) synthesis of the info and studies out there on employment effects of RE, energy efficient building, transport, agriculture. Also details environmental problems that create need for green employment and potential barriers. Acknowledges that much useful data does not exist. Lots of stats; 44 pp. of citations.
• Executive summary of this report is slightly more detailed version of the UNEP Background Paper on Green Jobs cited above
• Notes underdevelopment of green jobs in developed world, with exceptions of China and Brazil (ethanol production?)
• “As the German government has done, governments should also commission in-depth modeling and econometric efforts to analyze not just direct green jobs but also those that are related in a more indirect manner” (p.xiii)
• Worldwide employment estimates for recycling (1.5 million)
• Not all “green” jobs are automatically good for workers – electronics recycling (xiv), bad conditions in biofuel growing/production and potential to push people off land (xv) Carbon capture and sequestration is capital intensive; jobs/$million expected to be low (xvi-xvii) “
• As the Stern Review notes, real levels of R&D in low-carbon technologies have actually fallen sharply in recent decades” (xxvii)
• Problems with clean development mechanism (CDM) include skewed allocation of development projects (toward China, away from Lat Am and Africa); costs of certification around 14-22% of value of selling carbon credits from project; piecemeal approach of companies looking for cheap carbon credits (p.xxix)
• Skilled green jobs: “At the cutting edge of technology development for wind turbine or solar PV design, for instance, specialization has progressed to the point where universities need to consider offering entirely new study fields and majors” (p.xxx)
• Not all green jobs easy to recognize or count: “For instance, a particular piece of specialty steel may be used to manufacture a wind turbine tower without the steel company employees necessarily being aware of that fact” (p.8)
• Research on “rebound effect” – extent to which improved efficiency results in increased use (e.g., in cars, AC use, etc.) (p.9)
• Discusses need to move business focus from increasing labor productivity to increasing energy and materials productivity (p.12-13)
• Potential contradiction between renewables as a global source of jobs and renewables as part of national competitive economic strategies – e.g., desire to maintain export market stands in the way of technology transfer (p.60)