![]()
International Renewable Energy Agency\'s Director General, Adnan Z Amin
More than 7.7 million people worldwide are now employed by the renewable energy industry according to a new report released today by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
This is an 18 per cent increase from last year's figure of 6.5 million.
The report, Renewable Energy and Jobs – Annual Review 2015, also provides a first-ever global estimate of the number of jobs supported by large hydropower, with a conservative estimate of an additional 1.5 million direct jobs worldwide.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Director-General Adnan Z. Amin in a statement says renewable energy continues to assert itself as a major global employer, generating strong economic and social benefits worldwide.
The increase according Amin is being driven, in part, by declining renewable energy technology costs, which creates more jobs in installation, operations and maintenance.
He says the Agency expects that upward trend to continue as the business case for renewable energy continues to strengthen.
Jobs in the renewable energy sector are increasingly being created in Asia, with five of the 10 countries with the most renewable energy jobs now located in the region (China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and Bangladesh).
The 10 countries with the largest renewable energy employment figures are China, Brazil, the United States, India, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, France, Bangladesh and Colombia.
The launched today in New York is however silent about how much jobs were created in Africa with investment in renewable energy sours like hydro power and solar among others.
The solar photovoltaic industry is the largest renewable energy employer worldwide with 2.5 million jobs, followed by liquid biofuels with 1.8 million jobs, and wind power, which surpassed one million jobs for the first time this year.
