Renewable energies Green energy jobs on the rise worldwide
According to a study, the number of jobs in the green energy sector has grown significantly worldwide. China outshines the other countries.
Last year, there were at least 16.2 million jobs in the renewable energy sector, 18 per cent more than in the previous year, according to a report by the Geneva-based United Nations Labor Organization (ILO) and the Abu Dhabi-based International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena).
With a total of 7.4 million jobs, 45 percent of jobs were in China alone. According to the data, the world's second-largest economy was ahead of the EU in both the installation and manufacture of renewable energy systems.
From 2010 to 2023, China increased its share of global solar energy capacity from 2.6 percent and its share of global wind energy capacity from 16 percent to around 43 percent in each case. Between 2014 and 2023, the country invested almost three times as much as the USA and twice as much as Europe in renewable energies.
Germany at the forefront
In the European Union, there were 1.8 million jobs in the renewable energy sector. According to this report, Germany was in first place within the EU for wind power with almost 109,000 jobs. In the solar sector, there were almost 155,000 jobs in Germany in 2023, just over twice as many as in the previous year.
According to the report, Germany has a 5.8 percent share of global solar capacity, behind China, the USA and Japan, and a 6.8 percent share of wind power, also behind China and the USA.
Solar ahead of wind
The solar sector accounted for the most jobs worldwide in 2023 with 7.1 million, 4.6 million of which were in China alone. The EU followed far behind with 720,000. The biofuels sector accounted for 2.8 million jobs, hydropower 2.3 million and wind energy 1.5 million.
Last year, a record 473 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy systems were installed worldwide, as previously reported by the agency. The cumulative global capacity at the end of 2023 was 3.87 terawatts.
SDA
