600,000-plus new UK jobs in green energy ‘to make up for 90% jobs destroyed by Covid’
Britain’s boom in low-carbon energy and green infrastructure is on course to create 625,000 jobs, equivalent to 90% of the pandemic’s toll on employment, consultants EY Parthenon believe.
Philanthropists at the European Climate Foundation hired the analysts to evaluate creation of green jobs in 47 nations, together accounting for 88% of global GDP.
A total of 668 clean energy projects in Britain, including nearly 130 centred on storage, transmission, and distribution, came under EY’s microscope. Researchers put the role creation tally at 438,667 jobs; related projects could push that as high as new 625,000 posts.
Releasing their report today, EY provide regional totals of roles clustered around the UK’s clean power pipeline. Around 135,000 roles would be created in the North, Midlands, and East Anglia. Scotland will provide another 57,000.
More than 80% of the UK projects identified are at the ‘permitting’ stage, on the cusp of planners’ approval. EY take that status as a proxy for ‘fully funded’. Across the globe, 90% of the database’s ventures could be financed with no government’s money.
“Right here, right now” is the timeline for the identified roles‘ creation. The ECF believes its research shows how – as it says – “these projects can kick-start a massive green and renewable recovery to begin immediately across the world”.
The ECF implies the volume of ventures could ease by at least 20% the burden on advanced nations preparing project summaries to convince poorer nations at November’s CoP26 summit in Glasgow.
“These “no regrets” investments to deploy (a) “shovel ready” pipeline will contribute over one-fifth of countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) commitments”, says the foundation.
Serge Colle, EY’s global energy advisor, stressed his team’s bottom-up approach to their evaluation.
“(We) highlight the huge potential to accelerate private sector investment in renewables, (by) applying the best government policies and regulatory frameworks through global collaboration between governments and the private sector”.
Addressing the Johnson administration as much as other nations’, EY stress six actions to unlock the green energy pipeline:
- governments supporting challenging, clear national targets with clear accountability and a commitment to increase confidence among investors
- freeing up land allocation. Simple, fast, low-cost permitting will favour renewable energy projects
- liberalised access for private providers on transmission grids
- clearer regulatory environments favouring renewables, underpinned by supportive market design.
- lenders focused on home markets to welcome a wider range of developers including SMEs into their loans base
- international banks and institutions should offer finance under more competitive terms, including to SMEs
More on ECF’s report here.
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