{"id":233377,"date":"2019-10-04T00:03:21","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T04:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=233377"},"modified":"2019-10-04T02:32:45","modified_gmt":"2019-10-04T06:32:45","slug":"job-intensive-study-says-clean-energy-fast-track-to-employment-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/10\/04\/job-intensive-study-says-clean-energy-fast-track-to-employment-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Job intensive:&#8217; Study says clean energy fast track to employment growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fcleanenergycanada%2Fvideos%2F496585030939113%2F&amp;show_text=0&amp;width=560\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nNew research says job growth from clean energy will dramatically outpace that from fossil fuels over the next decade &#8212; as long as future Canadian governments maintain or increase attempts to fight climate change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe clean-energy sector is a good-news story that no one&#8217;s talking about,\u201d said Merran Smith of Clean Energy Canada, a think tank based at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. \u201cThere is nothing to fear about moving forward on climate action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, the group released research that found Canada&#8217;s clean-energy sector &#8212; which encompasses renewable energy and energy conservation &#8212; had already produced 300,000 jobs by 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Further study made public Wednesday projects job growth in the sector to significantly outperform most other parts of the economy.<\/p>\n<p>Using recognized economic modelling tools, it suggests that direct jobs from clean energy will grow at a rate of 3.4 per cent a year between 2020 and 2030. That&#8217;s nearly four times the Canadian average.<\/p>\n<p>The same models suggest fossil fuel industries will slowly lose jobs over that time.<\/p>\n<p>Smith said the data shows clean energy employment could reach nearly 560,000 by the end of the next decade. That&#8217;s 160,000 new jobs, more than enough to make up for the 50,000 jobs which fossil fuels are expected to shed.<\/p>\n<p>The study also forecasts money flowing into clean energy will grow 2.9 per cent a year. Fossil fuel investment is expected to shrink.<\/p>\n<p>Fossil fuels will be bigger than clean energy for years to come. But what the research shows, Smith said, is that new jobs and growth will come from the latter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fast lane is clean energy,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is where we&#8217;re seeing job growth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her conclusions are in broad agreement with others in the field.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeep decarbonization will be job intensive,\u201d said Mark Jaccard, an energy economist at Simon Fraser University.<\/p>\n<p>Fossil fuel alternatives require more labour, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Kent Fellows of the University of Calgary&#8217;s School of Public Policy agreed. He said studies in British Columbia, which has had a carbon tax for more than a decade, suggest climate measures didn&#8217;t cost jobs and may have added some.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey show that either you&#8217;re pretty stable or maybe you&#8217;ve got a little bit of an increase in employment,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fears of losing jobs everywhere are probably misguided.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The British group Carbon Tracker has found that while solar and wind provide only three per cent of global energy, they account for one-quarter of all new generation. And few of the world&#8217;s cars are electric, but they make up 22 per cent of sales growth.<\/p>\n<p>Automation is removing jobs from the oilpatch. Between 2014 and 2016, Alberta&#8217;s production grew by nearly 10 per cent but 39,000 fewer people were employed.<\/p>\n<p>Smith points out the modelling assumes that Canadian climate measures either stay in place or are increased &#8212; an assumption which the current federal election campaign has thrown in doubt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;ve got three parties that are not only committing to keep these policies but build on them,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe&#8217;ve got one party that has been clear: they are going to dismantle the policies which are going to create these jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fossil fuel jobs will be around for a long time, she said, but job growth will come elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCanada&#8217;s not making the choice &#8212; the world is making that choice. Canada is in the game and needs to stay in the game by moving forward on climate action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New research says job growth from clean energy will dramatically outpace that from fossil fuels over the next decade &#8212; &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":219138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-bob-weber","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233377"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233381,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233377\/revisions\/233381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}