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Posts Tagged ‘Green Collar Jobs’

UK committed to 40,000 green jobs in 5 years

Posted Thursday, June 11th, 2009 by admin

By: Jordana Levine

Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans to create the first ‘green cities’ in the world. His goal is to introduce huge numbers of electric cars on the streets of Britain and create 40,000 green collar jobs in the next five years.[1]

The 2009 Budget, announced in April, is supposed to boost a ‘green recovery’ for the country, aiming to cut carbon emissions by 34 percent in 2020. It is the world’s first binding, short-term carbon budget, committed to building carbon capture and storage facilities, creating renewable energy projects, and providing incentives for efficient power plants.[2]

£1.4 billion of funding (Can$2.5 billion) has been allotted to fight climate change through supporting low-carbon industries and green collar jobs alone. The £1.4 billion has been broken down to fund offshore wind projects, energy and resource efficiency for personal and professional use, low-carbon technologies and more. As well, the European Investment Bank has set aside £4 billion for renewable energy projects and an investment of £2.5 billion will make sure that combined heat and power plants don’t have to pay the climate change levy.[3]

The Budget will invite councils to bid to become Britain’s first green cities, of which there will be two or three, that will get to run trials for electric cars among other things.[4] PM Brown says that the government would gives incentives to car companies to create a worldwide market for electric and hybrid cars out of Britain. In April 2009, the European Investment Bank approved over £700 million in loans for Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan to develop green vehicles.[5]

To make the purchase of low-emitting vehicles easier, the Budget will allow British residents to scrap their old cars and buy a new, environmentally friendly vehicle with a £2,000 discount. The scheme is expected to save the nation’s motor industry in by creating demand for new cars and increasing consumer confidence.[6] However, some analysts believe that scrapping the cars could actually increase emissions. [7]

1 Grice, Andrew. “Brown’s electric dream for Britain.” The Independent. 8 April 2009.
2 “Budget 2009: Green measures at a glace.” Guardian.co.uk. 22 Apr 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/22/budget-2009-green-measures
3 Ibid.
4 Grice, Andrew. “Brown’s electric dream.”
5 Ibid.
6 Wang, Dongying and Rob Welham. “Scrappage scheme launched in Britain to save car industry.” Xinhua News Agency. 21 May 2009.
7 “Budget 2009.”

Tags: Budget 2009, carbon dioxide, cars, electric cars, Green Collar Jobs
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Green Energy Act could create 90,000 jobs in Ontario

Posted Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 by admin

By: Jordana Levine

The Green Energy Act (GEA) could employ over 90,000 Ontarians in green jobs. Government of Ontario is prepared to initiate the GEA, which focuses on the possibilities for employment if a large investment is made in green practices. Along with increasing employment opportunities, the program could have a huge positive impact on the environment.

The main goals of the GEA are to ensure that Ontario is the country’s leading green economy, create over 50,000 green collar jobs, and generate billions of dollars worth of economic activity as quickly as possible – ideally in three years. The plan involves phasing out the province’s coal plants by 2014 and shifting the province’s economy so that it is based on energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.

Building the Green Economy: Employment Effects of Green Energy Investments for Ontario is a report done by the Political Economy Research Institute, which gives recommendations and ideas regarding the GEA. The report identifies two levels of investment that would help the GEA. The first program is the baseline Integrated Power System Plan (IPSP), which would invest $18.6 billion over the next ten years in: conservation and demand management, hydroelectric power, on-shore wind energy, bioenergy, waste energy recycling and solar power.

However, the report also looks at an enhanced green investment program, which is referred to as the Green Energy Act Alliance (GEAA) plan. The GEAA plan would involve spending $47.1 billion over ten years and would do everything the baseline IPSP would do, plus it would invest in off-shore wind energy and a smart grid electrical transmission system for Ontario.

Although the baseline IPSP would generate 35,000 jobs, the expanded GEAA program would create 90,000 jobs for Ontarians. The occupations created would range from construction workers to financial auditors and engineers to research scientists. For the most part, wages would exceed $20 per hour.

Three types of employment effects would come out of these programs: direct, indirect and induced effects. The direct effects would be the jobs created within Ontario by the environmentally related activities, such as conservation, hydroelectricity and solar power. The indirect effects involve jobs associated with these green industries that provide goods and services for the green investment activities, like hardware and metals. Induced effects would be the employment that is created when the people who are paid via green investment projects spend the money they earn on other products and services within the province.

The baseline IPSP would lead to 15,500 direct jobs, 11,600 indirect, and 8,100 induced, while the expanded GEAA program would create 38,400 direct, 31,100 indirect and 20,900 induced jobs.

The IPSP would create nearly 12,000 MW of new electricity or conservation capacity; the expanded GEAA program would produce over 22,000, though. In March 2009, the Ontario Power Authority operated with about 27,000 MW of electricity-generating capacity. This means that the $47.1 billion investment program could either replace or expand capacity by 82 percent in the province (and the IPSP by 44 percent), leading to higher efficiency and a huge increase in renewable energy levels.

Tags: energy efficiency, Green Collar Jobs, Green Energy Act, investment, renewable energy
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Nations everywhere boast a ‘green stimulus’

Posted Monday, June 8th, 2009 by admin

By: Jordana Levine

International climate change talks are continuing in Bonn, Germany. The second round of discussions begun on June 1, 2009, and the negotiating time for the 192 collaborating countries ends in mid-July. By then, they need to reach an agreement with new emissions reduction targets and compensation packages for poor countries that have already been him with impacts of climate change. These new decisions will be the basis for the final negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009.[1]

These discussions on how to replace Kyoto Protocol targets are pushing countries to pump money into a “green stimulus.” China and the US, who never signed the Kyoto Protocol, are likely to join in the new plans for shrinking greenhouse gas emissions.[2]

Canada has set aside eight percent, or US$2.6 billion of its total stimulus package, for green measures. Although Canada’s emissions have gone in the opposite direction, reaching 26 percent above the 1990 levels and 33.8 percent above the country’s Kyoto targets[3], the country has agreed to cut emissions by 20 percent from 2006 to 2020. The majority of the money is estimated to increase clean energy and create 407,000 jobs over 5 years:[4]

The US is setting aside $112.3 billion for green measures, 12 percent of its fiscal stimulus. The nation’s first stimulus package, which was approved in October 2008, contained a lot more features than the second one, which was approved February 2009 and cut out $57 billion of environmental spending. Originally, it would have included $18.2 billion in taxes cuts and clean energy credits and $2 billion for carbon capture and storage. Still, the updated stimulus gives $22.5 billion for renewable energy incentives, $52 billion for energy efficiency, including updating the electricity grid, and $10 billion for public transit. The green stimulus is projected to create 2.5 million green jobs.[5]

China, the country whose emissions grew 250 percent between 1990 and 2006, plans to use 38 percent of its stimulus, equivalent to US$22.8 billion, to go green, according to HSBC. (However, Beijing and other economists say this number is higher than what they will invest.) Their green package will include over ¥350 billion (US$51 billion) for environmental projects and around ¥450 billion (US$66 billion) for the country’s rail infrastructure.[6] China is spending the most money per-capita to invest in going green.[7]

The European Union has set aside a whopping 59 percent of its fiscal stimulus, €16.4 billion (of US$22.8 billion), for green measures. The EU recovery plan should get the European Investment Bank to give an extra €12 billion of funding for green infrastructure over two years.[8]

1 Marsden, William. “Crunch time for climate talks.” Ottawa Citizen. 6 Jun 2009. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/fp/Crunch+time+climate+talks/1669662/story.html
2 Pedersen, Mike. “Keeping ahead of the green curve.” Ottawa Citizen. 5 Jun 2009. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Technology/Keeping+ahead+green+curve/1652801/story.html
3 Munro, Margaret. “Canada may be blowing smoke about intentions to reduce greenhouse gas.” Canada.com. 21 Apr 2009. http://www.canada.com/Canada+blowing+smoke+about+intentions+reduce+greenhouse/1517913/story.html
4 Bernard, Steve and others. “Which country has the greenest bail-out?” Financial Times. 2 Mar 2009. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cc207678-0738-11de-9294-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
5 Steve Bernard and others. “Which country?”
6 Steve Bernard and others. “Which country?”
7 Mike Pedersen. “Keeping ahead”
8 Steve Bernard and others. “Which country?”

Tags: Copenhagen, Green Collar Jobs, green stimulus, Greenhouse Gases, investment, Kyoto
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