Green jobs in energy sector hard to predict
Contact:
John Calvert, 778.782.8163, 604.255.6601, jrc@sfu.ca
Marjorie Griffin Cohen (in Toronto until Jan. 23), mcohen@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.3210
For the full report see:
http://www.workinawarmingworld.yorku.ca
Less than two per cent of Canada’s workforce is employed directly in the energy sector, but while growth is expected, it’s difficult to predict how many of those jobs will be green, according to a pair of Simon Fraser University researchers.
Political scientist Marjorie Griffin Cohen and John Calvert, a professor in health sciences, studied the state of employment in the industry for their paper, Climate Change and Labour in the Energy Sector. They’re among a host of researchers contributing to a new report released today, What Do We Know? What Do We Need to Know? The State of Canadian Research on Work, Employment and Climate Change.
The report, funded by Canada’s three National Research Councils, assesses the state of knowledge about the impact of climate change on employment in Canada. Overall, it suggests climate and labour market policies are still operating “as two solitudes” in Canada.
Several factors make it difficult to predict whether the growth in energy sector employment will mean more green jobs, says Calvert.
“There’s no accepted definition of a green job. In other countries, the manufacture of green technologies has been accompanied by government policy encouraging its domestic adoption, creating a positive effect for employment.
“That’s not the case in Canada. Governments at both federal and provincial levels mostly have failed to link the manufacture of green technologies with the creation of favourable conditions for their domestic use.”
The exception, Calvert says, is Ontario, but its attempts at local employment are being challenged by Japan, the U.S. and the European Union at the World Trade Organization.
Cohen notes that labour processes in energy sector green projects are not significantly different from labour processes in conventional energy jobs.
“Green projects tend to overestimate the number of jobs they will create. Many are temporary, and there is rarely any follow-up to monitor the number of green jobs that are actually created.”