(Increased investment in the energy sector will lead to renewed demand for related skills, writes Keith Orchison, The Weekend Australian, 1 February 2009)
One of the big unknowns of the current environmental debate is how many jobs a shift towards greener technology can deliver, but there is growing belief that the answer may lie in increased government stimulus plans to revive the flagging global economy.
Human resource consultants across the world are arguing that, despite the fearsome economic downturn, the ongoing need for new energy infrastructure along with the need, especially in supply utilities, to replace an ageing workforce, will continue to throw up employment opportunities for talented “techies”.
Australia is a good example of the environment – despite the economic problems, the electricity industry alone is expected to outlay about $100 billion between 2010 and 2020 on building new power generation to both meet demand and provide cleaner supply, to upgrade and expand the delivery networks, to improve system efficiency and to roll out a “smart meter” system for customers across the country.
This level of development throws up challenges for Australian supply organisations in recruitment and training against a continuing need to ensure that the past decade’s shortage of skilled workers is overcome and presents a wide range of opportunities for those looking to find a way in to a career in sustainable energy.
In general, the skills needed for installing and maintaining renewable energy equipment are mainly in the technical and engineering areas – and the general downturn in recent years in the number of students embarking on engineering degrees means that the anticipated strong upward trend in green infrastructure development over the decade ahead will provide a lot of room for those with the necessary talents.
The opportunities will be worldwide and not just domestic.
At last month’s Davos meeting in Switzerland the World Economic Forum urged policymakers around the developed world to devote $US515 billion a year between now and 2030 to transition the global economy to sources of cleaner energy production.
A number of initiatives, such as retro-fitting buildings to be energy efficient, the forum argues, can both provide new jobs and lay the foundations for longer-term economic growth.
Advocates of pursuing efforts to clean up the economy more vigorously point to California as an example of how jobs will follow green venture capital investment.
Despite the overall slowing in US investment last year, Californian “clean tech” outlays hit a record of $US3.3 billion, double the previous year’s investment and seven times that of 2005. While state-wide employment growth between 2005 and 2008 was only one percent, green jobs rose by 10 percent.
Jim Waring, chairman of CleanTECH San Diego, says his city has the opportunity to become one of the world’s leading “clean tech” clusters. Just ramping up the program to instal solar panels on San Diego’s homes and business buildings, he points out, provides more work for electricians, plumbers and installers.
Hardheaded analysts in California and elsewhere still maintain that it is too early to declare “green tech” the new biotech, a sector that took off spectacularly in the 1990s and generated a large number of jobs in the state, others parts of North America and in the rest of the developed and industrialising world. There is still too much uncertainty, they argue.
Australia’s environmental lobby has no such doubts. In a statement this month, the Southern Cross Climate Coalition – the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Australian Council of Social Service and the Climate Institute – joined with the Property Council, the Institute of Superannuation Trustees and the Green Infrastructure Council to call for a three-pronged economic stimulus plan based around “green construction, sustainable infrastructure and green jobs.”
The group wants the Rudd government to go well beyond its $3.8 billion energy efficient homes program to scale up stimulus measures to the levels now being pursued in America and China.
It argues that there are a raft of programs that could be pursued, for example making the proposed $21 billion in federal funding for school buildings and community and Defence Department housing conditional on adoption of best practice energy and water efficiency. Support for small to medium scale renewable energy installations, such as solar, wind and geothermal plants.
While the statement does not focus on it, the Rudd government’s proposed enhanced renewable energy target – for which legislation will come before federal parliament in the first half of this year – is designed to drive up to $30 billion worth of investment in zero emissions power generation in the next decade and to cost consumers an estimated $12 billion in extra costs over 10 years from 2010 through subsidising the measure.
The World Economic Forum’s Davos statement argues that it is possible to swiftly mobilize a wide range of activities such as low-emission technologies, renewable power generation, end-use energy efficiency programs and building insulation schemes. These activities, it says, will provide quick economic returns, a market stimulus and many jobs while helping to lay the foundations for a low-emissions future.