A transition to renewable energy sources promises
significant global job gains at a time when the coal industry has been
hemorrhaging jobs for years, according to the latest Vital Signs Update
released by the Worldwatch Institute.
The coal, oil,
and natural gas industries require steadily fewer jobs as high-cost production
equipment takes the place of human capital. Many hundreds of thousands of coal
mining jobs have been shed in China, the United
States, Germany, the United
Kingdom, and South Africa during the last two
decades, sometimes in the face of expanding production. In the United
States alone, coal industry employment has
fallen by half in the last 20 years, despite a one-third increase in
production.
"Government
officials now have yet another reason to put the full weight of their support
behind renewables," said Renner. "In addition to protecting our planet and
phasing out an increasingly limited resource, policies that support renewable
energy also support job creation."
