What is Green Jobs? 8.63 lakh employment opportunities created in 2020-21 in India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week asked state governments, companies and citizens to focus on green growth and green jobs to achieve the ambitious target of net zero carbon emission by 2070. According to a report by news agency ANI, the number of countries participating in the renewable energy market is increasing but most of the jobs created to date have been in a relatively small number of countries.

The report which cited a joint report published by International Renewable Energy Agency and the International Labour Organization titled ‘Renewable Energy and Jobs — Annual Review 2022’, as many as 863,000 green jobs were created in India 2020-21 of which 217,000 were in solar photovoltaic vertical and 414,000 in hydropower.

China, Brazil, the US and European Union were the other top green jobs generators during the period.

What is Green Jobs?

A green job is an employment in any industry that contributes to preserving or restoring environmental quality in that sector and allowing for sustainable development. It includes jobs that help protect ecosystems and biodiversity and reduce energy, materials and water consumption through high efficiency strategies.

Green jobs can be in any sector, such as agriculture, manufacturing, research and development activities etc.

They can bring the much needed transition from high carbon to low carbon economy by promoting environment friendly technologies.

The joint report said the bulk of renewable energy employment accounted for 63.6 per cent of green jobs in 2021 in Asian countries.

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. The government imposed import duties of 40 per cent on all modules and 25 per cent on all cells effective April 2022, replacing 15 per cent safeguard duties that had been levied on PV imports from China and Malaysia, the joint report said.

In the wind energy sector too, India was a leading installer in 2020-2021.

It also introduced a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme to boost domestic manufacturing of high-efficiency modules. This offers financial support for project developers who commit to setting up production facilities along the value chain.

Worldwide, the solar vertical scored a new record in 2021, producing 132.8 GW of solar PV capacity installations, up from 125.6 GW in 2020, with many countries, including India, setting new annual records.

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.

The report added that 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.