India among leaders in green jobs generation, creates employment for 8.63 lakh in 2021
In 2020-21, India created 863,000 green jobs, of which 217,000 were in solar photovoltaic vertical and 414,000 in hydropower, a joint report published by International Renewable Energy Agency and the International Labour Organization titled ‘Renewable Energy and Jobs — Annual Review 2022’ said. China, Brazil, the US and European Union were the other top green jobs generators during the period.
The joint report presents employment statistics for several leading countries as well as a few other selected countries with a focus on China, Brazil, India, the United States and members of the European Union. In total, 12.7 million green jobs were generated in 2020-2021, of which China created 5.4 million jobs, up from 4.7 million the previous year. The joint report said the bulk of renewable energy employment is in Asian countries, which accounted for 63.6 per cent of these jobs in 2021.
Jobs in solar photovoltaic (PV) in 2021, the fastest-growing sector, accounted for more than a third of the total renewable energy workforce. India added 10.3 GW of solar PV capacity in 2021, up from 4.2 GW installed in 2020.
Further, the joint report estimates global employment in renewable energy by 2030 under an ambitious energy transition scenario with front-loaded investments at 139 million. In India, India’s goal towards 500 GW of non-fossil-fuel energy sources by 2030 could create 3.4 million new job opportunities (of short or long duration), or about 1 million direct full-time equivalents, the report added.
Coming to hydropower, capacity worldwide expanded by 25 GW, with China alone adding almost 21 GW. Canada, India and Vietnam added about 1 GW each, and European countries added about 1.5 GW. India accounted for about 18 per cent of global hydropower employment, followed by Brazil, Viet Nam, Pakistan, the United States, the Russian Federation and Colombia.
(ANI)
