PublishedSeptember 8, 2022, 07:27
energy sectorJob boom thanks to low-carbon energies
The number of employees in energy has exceeded the pre-Covid level despite losses in the more traditional gas or oil sectors.
Local farmers and residents build a chain reaction as part of the opening of the Zeevolde wind farm in the Netherlands, the world’s largest environmental wind farm, on August 26, 2022.
AFP
Global energy employment has recovered to and surpassed pre-Covid levels, driven by low-carbon energies, which have offset losses in more traditional gas or oil sectors, according to the International Energy Agency. energy (IEA). More than 65 million people now work in energy, around 2% of the global workforce, a recovery linked to new energy hiring.
On the other hand, the oil and gas sector was among the economic sectors that laid off the most at the start of the pandemic, and if it is hiring again, it has not yet recovered its previous workforce, underlines this report on Employment. in energy, the first of its kind for the IEA, which will update it every year in order to shed light on the impacts of the energy transition.
tipping point
Low-carbon energies now account for more than half of energy jobs, particularly in the design and manufacture of technologies. In oil and gas, hiring is often linked to the development of new projects, notably liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructures.
In total, a third of the workforce today works in the production of fuels (coal, gas, oil, bioenergy), a third in the electricity sector, and a third in end uses (energy efficiency but also automobile construction and batteries) . Half are in the Asia-Pacific region (30% in China), reflecting the growth of the continent in the production of equipment for new energies (solar, batteries, electric vehicles, etc.), for local use and for export, notes the IEA in this report by region and by sector.
Objective of carbon neutrality in 2050
For the future, all the scenarios envisaged by the IEA anticipate a rise in employment in green energies, compensating for the decline in fossil fuels. Its plan for carbon neutrality by 2050, which would imply in particular the immediate cessation of all new oil and gas exploration projects, would mean the creation of 14 million jobs by 2030 in clean energies, and the transfer of 16 million others, depending on the institution, come from the OECD. But as not all jobs will be strictly transferable, because not necessarily in the same regions or at the same skill levels, “governments will need to focus on vocational training and skills building, to ensure that the transition benefits the greater number”, warns the IEA.
The global energy sector would represent some 2% of global employment.
(AFP)