How to save the economy and fight climate change (greentech jobs)
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Reuters has a great article on putting a floor under the economy and at the same time helping fight global warming. We previously wrote about the argument that big business (usually polluters or vested interests) use in fighting a renewable energy target or carbon dioxide trading or taxes.
The UK Guardian also has a great article on it here. The article talks about how the UK is seeing an uplift in green knowledge in the workplace (i.e. more jobs).
I’ve been thinking about all the money that the US and Europe in particular are throwing at bailing out banks and carmakers. Why isn’t this money (trillions) being put toward sustainable future industries like this one?.
I’ve often thought that if these car companies constantly need subsidies to continue, how are they even profitable? To be viable only through subsidies does not sound like a successful business to me.
Anyway, instead of throwing billions of dollars at these companies, why not redirect that to a comprehensive system of:
- making houses and businesses more energy efficient (and thus lowering their power bills and CO2 footprint)
- retraining millions of workers for “green collar” jobs
- subsidising homes and businesses to install solar, grey water, water tanks and better insulation as well as power control systems (control lighting etc)
- public transport (NOT more roads)
- R&D into clean/greentech industries including grants for small startups, including a loading for small eco-focussed businesses based on how many employees they hire
If CO2 emissions were taxed in someway, then personal and company tax could be lowered with the carbon tax replacing that. Of course, as CO2 output declined, tax would need to be increased somehow.
Ecogeek has a great article about Spanish windpower and how Spain plans to get 30% (!!) of it’s power from renewables by next year.
Beyond just wind, Spain hopes to have renewable energy sources making up 30 percent of their energy demand within the next year.
Next year!!
There’s hope for this planet yet, I’m sure of that.
Meanwhile ClimateProgress has a great article on why anyone carrying on about job losses as a result of being more sustainable is a right twat. Wind in the US now employs more people than coal.
Scale wind up, and solar, and what do you have? Sustainable jobs.
In some promising “green jobs” news, the wind industry in the U.S. has now officially surpassed the coal mining industry in the number of people it employs. Wind industry jobs increased to 85,000 in 2008 while the coal industry remained the same at about 81,000 jobs.
The country made huge gains in wind energy in the past couple of years and that increase obviously created huge gains in employment as well. Last year, there was a 50 percent increase in installed wind capacity and a 70 percent increase in wind industry jobs over the year before. Off those jobs, 13,000 were in regions of the country that had seen a loss of manufacturing jobs in recent years.
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