Table 4. International approaches to energy sector employment – IEA countries

Canada does not produce annual, national disaggregated renewable energy employment data but has recently undertaken a study on energy efficiency employment using the USEER methodology (ECO Canada, 2019). We were unable to find recent national data on renewable energy employment for Mexico.

4.3.3 Asia Pacific

Australia is covered in detail in the previous section, and we were unable to find national disaggregated data for employment in the renewable energy sector for Japan or New Zealand.

4.3.4 Global

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) produces the Renewable Energy and Jobs Annual Review (IRENA, 2020) with publications dating back to 2011. The report covers five main categories of renewables – hydropower, solar PV, bioenergy, wind energy, solar heating/cooling, plus other technologies. It includes direct and indirect jobs in renewable energy worldwide. IRENA provides data and analysis on issues such as local value creation, wages, education and training, and gender equity in renewable energy employment. The IRENA jobs database provides a breakdown of employment data by sector for each country (IRENA Jobs Database, 2021). Employment numbers are based on a wide range of studies that use varying methodologies and the information is of variable quality. IRENA sources data from primary information provided by national entities such as ministries and statistical agencies, and secondary data sources such as regional and global studies. Where data is insufficient, IRENA uses estimates based on employment factors, capacity and manufacturing data.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reported on the job potential in the energy efficiency sector in 2021. The IEA has tracked funding for energy efficiency-related measures announced as part of governments’ stimulus packages to the end of October 2020. They estimate jobs based on these funding announcements. The jobs are categorised by country, region and sector (industry, buildings and transport) as well as efficiency measures (building retrofits, industry energy efficiency, new electric cars, railways, charging infrastructure, new buildings, material efficiency, public transport, walkways and bike lanes, new efficient cars).

Table 4. International approaches to energy sector employment – IEA countries

SECTOR ANNUAL ORGANISATION MARKET VALUE/ EMPLOYMENT MAIN APPROACH BOUNDARIES (LEVEL OF DETAIL)

Australia Renewable energy Yes (limited period) ABS (special report) (2020a) Clean Energy Council (2020, 2021) ABS: Employment CEC: construction employment and investment

Energy efficiency No Ad hoc for example Energy Efficiency Council, Green Energy Markets (2019) Variable

Canada Energy (petroleum, electricity) Yes Statistics Canada Both

Renewable energy Limited period Statistics Canada (from 2013 – 2017) Market value only

Energy efficiency/ Environmental sector Yes ECO Canada (2019) Both

United States Energy sector including EE (fuels, renewable & fossil fuel electricity, transmission & distribution, EE, transport) Yes NASEO & EFI (2020) U.S. Energy and Employment Report Both Survey (25,000 businesses), census data (Bureau of Labor Statistics), NAICS codes Direct employment, occupational details, hiring difficulties/ expertise gaps, 5-year trends, demographics, wage levels.

ABS: employment factors, CEC: project calculations

Variable ABS: employment in renewable energy activities (construction only)

Variable

Survey, census data, NAICS codes Direct and indirect

Survey (focus changes year by year) Direct employment, Value, Specific occupations, Hiring difficulties, demographics, Projections

SECTOR ANNUAL ORGANISATION MARKET VALUE/ EMPLOYMENT MAIN APPROACH BOUNDARIES (LEVEL OF DETAIL)

Europe Renewable energy (by country and technology) Yes EurObserv’ER (2019) Both Input-output model developed by Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands

Energy efficiency No Ad Hoc but frequent Both

Germany Energy efficiency Yes Deutsche Unternehmensinitiative Energieeffizienz (DENEFF)6

Ministry of Economics & Technology (BMWi) and Ministry of Environment (BMU) 7 Both

Both Mixture of employment indicators, I/O, and econometric modelling

Survey

I/O analysis (products), regular surveys, econometric modelling

Renewable energy Yes Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) 8

UK Low carbon and renewable energy economy (LCREE) incl. RE, EE, DM, alternative fuels, low emission vehicles, energy storage, low carbon consultancies Office of Statistics (DESTATIS)

Yes Office of National Statistics (2021) Employment Combination of surveys (demand/ construction of RE infrastructure) and I/O analysis

Both

Both Survey incl. ~ 24,000 businesses (legally required to complete)

Global Renewable energy Yes IRENA

Energy efficiency No IEA Employment Combination of publicly available data, secondary data sources, estimates based on employment factors and surveys

Both Combination of IEA estimates and analysis from other IEA publications, and publicly available data Direct and indirect. Main input spend per annual commissioned capacity

Variable

Direct employment, sector & occupational level, demand and availability of occupations

Direct & indirect employment

Gross employment per RE sector and geographic region

Data includes turnover, imports, exports, employment, acquisitions & disposals of capital assets

Data includes direct and indirect employment by technology/ industry

Estimates of energy efficiency jobs in selected countries/ regions and by efficiency measures

6 EE industry association 7 Blazejczak, Edler and Gornig (2020), Economic indicators of energy efficiency measures – update 2020, DIW. [Report in German language].

Commissioned by Ministry of Environment https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/479/publikationen/uib_03-2020_ oekonomische_indikatoren_energieeffizienz_aktualisierung_2020.pdf 8 DIW/DLR/GWS https://www.bmwi.de/Redaktion/DE/Publikationen/Studien/erneuerbar-beschaeftigt-in-den-bundeslaendern.pdf?__ blob=publicationFile&v=8