Green jobs not what they seem
Source: Agencies |
February 8, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
INVESTMENTS to create new jobs in clean energies risk backfiring by curbing employment in other parts of the economy, a study commissioned by Danish "Skeptical Environmentalist" Bjorn Lomborg said yesterday.
The report said jobs in green energies were often based on over-optimistic projections of a fast shift from fossil fuels in coming decades toward cleaner sources.
"You can create jobs in clean energies, but unfortunately it ends up at the cost of competitiveness elsewhere," Lomborg, head of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, said of a study about "defining, measuring and predicting green jobs."
A farmer who grows rapeseed to produce biofuels in a shift from growing wheat, for instance, is not creating a net new job, only changing employment, said economist Gurcan Gulen.
Or a train driver who transports furniture, for instance, should not be relabeled as a new green worker if a shift in client demand means his cargo becomes wind turbines.
"If you are going to use that kind of counting then pretty much everyone will be a green employee," Lomborg said.
Still, he said there were different grades of investments. Other studies have indicated that insulating buildings, for instance, can pay for itself in lower energy costs.
The report said jobs in green energies were often based on over-optimistic projections of a fast shift from fossil fuels in coming decades toward cleaner sources.
"You can create jobs in clean energies, but unfortunately it ends up at the cost of competitiveness elsewhere," Lomborg, head of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, said of a study about "defining, measuring and predicting green jobs."
A farmer who grows rapeseed to produce biofuels in a shift from growing wheat, for instance, is not creating a net new job, only changing employment, said economist Gurcan Gulen.
Or a train driver who transports furniture, for instance, should not be relabeled as a new green worker if a shift in client demand means his cargo becomes wind turbines.
"If you are going to use that kind of counting then pretty much everyone will be a green employee," Lomborg said.
Still, he said there were different grades of investments. Other studies have indicated that insulating buildings, for instance, can pay for itself in lower energy costs.
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