Over 300,000 workers will be employed in the solar and wind energy sectors in India to meet the country’s target of generating 175 gigawatts of electricity from renewable sources by 2022, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has estimated in a report.
The ILO said in its annual flagship report on the state of the global job market that action to combat climate change could create millions of new job opportunities and “more than” offset losses in traditional industries.
The estimates by The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) say that based on surveys of solar and wind companies, developers and manufacturers, over 300,000 workers will be employed in the solar and wind energy sectors in India to meet the 2022 target.
To meet the target, the number of workers required by ground-mounted solar, rooftop solar and wind power projects, will need to increase… The potential for employment creation is conditional on the domestic capacity of solar module manufacturing and the establishment of vocational training program and certification schemes.
The report noted that India has made environmental sustainability a central objective of its development strategy in its twelfth Five-Year Plan (2012–17) and set up a comprehensive framework for skills development for green transition at the national level, targeting key sectors and institutions like the Skills Council for Green Jobs was set up for the purpose in 2015.
It said that based on the identification of skills needs in these sectors, 26 new Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) courses have been developed for occupations ranging from water treatment plant helper to solar project manager and improved cooking stove installer.
The ILO report predicts that the transition to a green economy will also lead to the loss of six million jobs in industries that are heavily reliant on carbon-based production. Two sectors, namely petroleum extraction and refining, are set to see job losses of one million or more.