2023 saw the highest ever increase in renewable energy jobs, from 13.7 million in 2022 to 16.2 million, according to the newly released Renewable Energy and Jobs – Annual Review 2024 by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Labour Organization (ILO). The 18 percent year-on-year leap reflects the strong growth of renewables generating capacities, together with a continued expansion of equipment manufacturing.
A closer look at the report’s data, however, shows an uneven global picture. Close to two-thirds of new global solar and wind capacity were installed in China alone last year.
China leads with an estimated 7.4 million renewable energy jobs, or 46 percent of the global total. The EU followed suit with 1.8 million, Brazil with 1.56 million, and the United States and India, each with close to 1 million jobs.
As in the past few years, the strongest impetus came from the rapidly growing solar photovoltaics (PV) sector, which supported 7.2 million jobs globally. Of these, 4.6 million were in China, the dominant PV manufacturer and installer. Enabled by significant Chinese investments, Southeast Asia has emerged as an important export hub of solar PV, creating jobs in the region.
Liquid biofuels had the second-largest number of jobs, followed by hydropower and wind. Brazil topped the biofuels ranks, accounting for one third of the world’s 2.8 million jobs in this sector. Soaring production put Indonesia in second, with a quarter of global biofuels jobs.
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Due to a slowdown in deployment, hydropower became an outlier to the overall growth trend, with the number of direct jobs estimated to have shrunk from 2.5 million in 2022 to 2.3 million. China, India, Brazil, Viet Nam and Pakistan were the largest employers in the industry.
In the wind sector, China and Europe remain dominant. As leaders in turbine manufacturing and installations, they contributed 52 percent and 21 percent to the global total of 1.5 million jobs, respectively.
Despite immense resource potential, Africa continues to receive only a small share of global renewables investments, which translated into a total of 324,000 renewables jobs in 2023. For regions in urgent need of reliable and sustainable energy access like Africa, and especially in remote areas, decentralised renewable energy (DRE) solutions – stand-alone systems that are not connected to the utility grids – present an opportunity to both plug the access gap and generate jobs. Removing barriers for women to start entrepreneurship initiatives in DRE can stimulate the sector, resulting in improved local economies and energy equity.
Source: IRENA
