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| | KEY FACTS Queensland top the green jobs
The number of green job ads in NSW fell 12.9% last month. On the other hand, Queensland, Victoria and WA grew strongly, reporting increases in the number of green jobs of 14.4%, 9.6% and 9% respectively.
Despite having a significantly smaller population, Queensland has in real terms more green job advertising than any other state.
A major contributing factor to the state-by-state variations lies in the state policies with regards to solar energy, which is a major green job employer.
In NSW the removal/reduction of the state feed-in tariff and rebate schemes have had a major impact, with an estimated 80 jobs lost in just four weeks. | |
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Max Pichon | business@ben-global.com.au
Australian based recruiter GreenCollar Talent who tracks green job growth on a monthly basis (see Key Facts). It's a mixed picture, according to its director, Peter Hooper.
"Green jobs will eventually take up a lot of the slack, but to think that green jobs can directly replace the 1100 jobs at BlueScope Steel is just not feasible,” Hooper said.
“Some of those people affected by jobs losses could be re-trained, for example in process re-engineering that would help the steel sector become more efficient.”
There's a lively debate in the US at the moment about whether green jobs are a mirage.
President Barack Obama pledged to create five million green jobs over 10 years, while California Governor Jerry Brown promised 500,000 cleantech jobs statewide.
The results so far suggest the promise might be a long way off, prompting the New York Times to question the whole agenda.
Hooper said some sectors and states in Australia remain strong green job creators.
“Queensland is by far the fastest growing state when it comes to green jobs,” Hooper said, while a good part of the new green jobs in WA are around environmental management in the mining sector.
The fastest growing jobs are in energy efficiency and commercial installations like HVAC. He's also seeing a lot of sustainability positions created in councils, such as sustainability officers and sustainability managers in areas around buildings, waste and water project. The City of Sydney is leading the way with its 'Sustainable Sydney 2030' plan.
“Then you have solar, which six months ago was white hot across the country with the bulk of green job employment. Now that it has been cut down in NSW and in WA, we have seen a slowdown in the industry. NSW is in freefall, so solar won’t be the big player it has been for the next year or so. It is still number one, but in a very difficult position," Hooper told BEN.
He argues the key determinant of a "green jobs boom" in Australia is whether the carbon price comes in or not.
“If we don’t get a carbon tax then it will be a very slow process, it will rely on natural organic growth, which will be painfully slow. But if we do get a carbon tax and a good solid structure around a carbon price, then there will be solid growth," Hooper said.
"I also think the [Carbon Farming Initiative] will bring a lot of green job opportunities for the rural sector. I think thousands of jobs will be created out of that."
So how does Australia compare to the rest of the world?
“There are pockets of North America who are miles ahead of us, particularly California," said Hooper.
"Even New Zealand is 10 years in front of us, not so much because of the introduction of the ETS but by virtue of their natural resources and how they have created green jobs in the geothermal operations sector for example. For them, green jobs are just considered normal jobs.
“Germany and the UK are also ahead of us, and then you have China which is way ahead of anyone with the sheer scale of money they are putting into cleantech. But compared to most other countries we are doing pretty well, so I would say we are in the middle of the pack."
Hooper thinks the barrier to investment in green jobs here is too much instability at a policy level, from the backflips on solar feed-in tariffs by the states to the fierce federal debate over carbon pricing to the attitude of the Australian media.
Hooper confessed to BEN that his business name was inspired by US green jobs advocate Van Jones, Obama's former green-jobs czar and author of the book, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems.
Click here for a 10 minute Youtube video of Van Jones discussing his book.
He agrees with Jones’ comment in the New York Times article that “the promise of millions of clean energy jobs was always based on the passage of policies that the Republicans have, so far, successfully torpedoed".
While Jones maintains green jobs "remain the story of the decade and the century", the Brookings Institution released a report in July that found cleantech jobs accounted for just 2% of employment nationwide and the numbers were falling.
Click here to read the rest of today's news stories. |
Tuesday, September 06, 2011 by BEN member
Excellent commentary and insights. As an active recruiter in the Environmental sector the only jobs I see are the minor adjunct roles to Infrastructure projects. The is a lot of rethoric but at the end of the day we are still cuaght in the bricks and motar or should I say Infrasructure dark ages.
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