Commission staff working document
: THE IMPACT OF RENEWABLE ENERGY POLICY ON EMPLOYMENT
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- 3.1: THE BENEFITS OF THE RES SECTOR
- 3.1.1: THE EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS OF RES
- 3.1.2: THE FUTURE IMPACT OF RES ON EMPLOYMENT
- 3.1.3: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
3: THE IMPACT OF RENEWABLE ENERGY POLICY ON EMPLOYMENTPolicies that support renewable energy sources (RES) give a significant boost to the economy and the number of jobs in the EU. Improving current policies so that the target of 20 % of RES in final energy consumption in 2020 can be achieved will, it is estimated, provide a net effect of about 410 000 additional jobs and a 0.24 % increase in gross domestic product (GDP) in the EU. This is therefore an important policy issue and this section looks more closely at the impact that RES policy is likely to have on the EU’s labour markets, in terms of the volume of the workforce and the skills that are likely to be necessary in the future. The Commission Communication An energy policy for Europe171 identifies the points of departure for a European energy policy as:
The likely positive effect of the increased use of renewable energy sources on efforts to combat climate change and to limit the EU’s external vulnerability to imported hydrocarbons is largely undisputed. It has been clearly shown that renewable energy makes an indispensable contribution to greenhouse gas reductions and to the increased security of energy supply in Europe. There is, however, still uncertainty about the exact contribution of renewables to the promotion of growth and jobs in terms of the objectives of the EU’s Lisbon Strategy. As stated in the Commission’s RES roadmap:172 ‘Studies vary in their estimates of the GDP impact of increasing the use of renewables, some suggesting a small increase (of the order of 0.5 %), and others a small decrease’. While most policy makers believe that increased use of RES and job creation can go hand in hand, others assume that the distribution and the budget effects might result in turning a large gross employment effect into a small or even a negative net employment effect. The Renewable Energy Directive for 2020 was adopted by the European Parliament and the European Council in December 2008.173 This Directive sets ambitious targets for each EU Member State with the aim of achieving a 20 % share of renewable energy in Europe’s final energy consumption by 2020. The European Environment Council of March 2008 issued a number of conclusions regarding energy efficiency, climate change and renewable energy, urging the Member States and the Commission to ensure a better coordination between the Lisbon and the EU Sustainable Development Strategies and to pay increased attention to environmental technologies, resource efficiency and biodiversity. It stated further that the EU should foster an ‘ambitious global and comprehensive post-2012 agreement’ containing goals such as global emission reductions to at least 50 % by 2050 compared to 1990 levels and in line with the European Council’s reaffirmation that developed countries should continue to take the lead also with a view to collectively reducing their emissions by 60 % to 80 % by 2050 compared to 1990. It also stated that the EU should step up to the more ambitious 30 % reduction as part of a global and comprehensive agreement, as set out in the European Council conclusions of March 2007. The Council also stressed the importance of environmental technologies as one of the fastest growing markets and of eco-design and a life-cycle approach in supporting eco-innovation. It also recognised the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises for the EU economy as well as their significant impact on the environment and particular challenges related to increasing energy and resource efficiency. In terms of regulation, it called on the Commission and the Member States to increase efforts to consider implementation measures in their impact assessment of new legislation, and to share best practice on implementation and enforcement. The Commission’s main thinking in the area of renewable energy was set out in its January 2009 Communication, Towards a comprehensive climate change agreement in Copenhagen,174 which was issued ahead of the United Nations Copenhagen climate conference. The Commission sets out ways in which to limit global warning to less than two degrees above the pre-industrial temperature, stating that developed countries must take the lead and cut their collective emissions by 30 % of 1990 levels by 2020 and that developing countries, except the poorest ones, should limit growth in their collective emissions to 15-30 % below business as usual levels by 2020. In particular, the Commission states that the EU should seek to build, by 2015, an OECD-wide carbon market in order to mitigate and to raise funds to fight climate change. The market should be expanded to include major emerging economies by 2020 with a view to building a global carbon market. The Copenhagen Summit on climate change, which took place in December 2009 resulted in a non-binding accord that limits temperature rises, but does not include any emissions targets, which was seen as a poor outcome by those advocating the introduction of controls on emissions. 3.1: THE BENEFITS OF THE RES SECTORIn order to reach the target of achieving a 20 % share of renewable energy by 2020, it is important to gain further understanding and awareness of the economic and employment benefits of renewables. A recent study entitled The impact of renewable energy policy on economic growth and employment in the European Union 2009175 provides a first detailed analysis of the full macroeconomic effects of renewable energy deployment at EU level. The study analyses the past, present and future impacts of renewable-energy policies in the EU on employment and the economy, looking at the gross and net effects (including both conventional replacement and budget effects). It was conducted on behalf of the European Commission’s Directorate-General Energy and Transport. This study finds that the renewable energy sector is already very important in terms of employment and value added. New industries with strong lead market potential have been created, which contribute about 0.6 % to total GDP and employment in Europe. This development is likely to accelerate if current policies are improved in order to reach the agreed target of 20 % renewable energies in Europe by 2020 (see above). However, despite large gross figures in terms of employment and value added, net figures are significantly smaller, due to replaced investments in conventional energy technologies as well as the dampening effect of the higher cost of renewable energies compared with conventional alternatives. Currently, strong investment impulses — based on installations in Europe and exports to the rest of the world — dominate the economic impact of renewable energy policies and therefore lead to positive overall effects. In order to maintain this positive balance in the future, it will be necessary to uphold and improve the competitive position of European manufacturers of RES technology and to reduce the costs of renewable energies by exploiting their full learning potentials. Therefore, policies which promote technological innovation in RES technologies and lead to a continuous and sufficiently fast reduction of the costs will be of major importance. Besides the implementation of strong policies in the EU, it will be of key relevance to improve the international framework conditions for renewable energies in order to create large markets, exploit economies of scale and accelerate research and development. Three projections for the RES deployment in the EU are:
Three projections of European companies’ global market share in RES are made:
3.1.1: THE EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS OF RESSince 1990, the RES industry has seen substantial growth, mainly due to public promotion policies. The fivefold increase in investment expenditures for new RES plants to almost € 30 billion in 2005 was the main driver for this expansion. However, operational and maintenance expenditures also increased continuously, due to the growing number of plants in operation. Furthermore, European suppliers gained considerable global market shares in booming RES technology fields such as wind and photovoltaics. Total value added generated by RES deployment has roughly doubled since 1990. Due to increasing labour productivity, total employment has grown by approximately 40 %. This development has led to the establishment of a strong cross-sectoral RES industry in Europe. It comprises all the activities needed for planning, manufacturing and installing facilities that use RES, for operating and maintaining them and for supplying them with biomass (direct economic impact). It is furthermore connected with several industries that form its upstream supply chain (indirect economic impact). In 2005, building and operating RES facilities contributed about 0.6 % to total GDP and employment in Europe. About 55 % of this impact is directly related to the RES industry, with 45 % related to the supply chain industries. In absolute numbers, RES deployment leads to a gross value added of € 58 billion and 1.4 million people employed. With 0.9 million people employed, small and medium-sized enterprises have a significant share of two-thirds of this employment impact. As important suppliers of biomass, agriculture and forestry roughly employ 200 000 people. Other important economic sectors involved are the investment goods manufacturing industry, construction and trade. The contribution of the respective RES technologies to employment in the EU Member States is shown in figure 6.2 below. In most countries, biomass use has a high relevance for employment. Wind technology is an important contributor to employment in Germany, Denmark and Spain and photovoltaics is relevant in Germany. Figure 6.2: Total employment induced by RES deployment in 2005, by country and RES technology 
Source: European Commission. 3.1.2: THE FUTURE IMPACT OF RES ON EMPLOYMENTThe above-mentioned study indicates that employment levels would be slightly stimulated by RES policies, but the effects would be moderate compared to the effects on GDP. The main results can be summarised as follows:
Figure 6.3 below presents the results on employment of different policy scenarios. It is apparent that employment increases in all the scenarios, but to a smaller extent than GDP. In BAU scenarios, employment increases by 0.08 % in the moderate (ME) scenario and 0.12 % in the optimistic (OE) one; this represents 187 000 and 262 000 new jobs created, respectively. In the ADP scenarios, the additional investments and demands bring about a 0.24 % increase in employment (545 000 jobs) in the ME scenario and a 0.29 % (656 000 jobs) in the OE scenario. Figure 6.3: Employment change for Europe in thousands 
Source: European Commission. In terms of the distribution of total employment by technology, there is a significant role for biomass technologies in terms of employment generation and especially decentralised non-grid use. Over 60 % of the total impact is due to biomass technologies. The major share of employment is triggered by the supply of biomass for fuel use. This share is subject to considerable uncertainty, since significant amounts of biomass for non-grid use appear not to be purchased at market prices, but may be obtained from own resources or informal channels, especially by private households. This study assumes that 50 % of biomass obtained by private households is purchased at market prices. Regarding the employment effects per technology, it becomes clear that current ‘business as usual’ RES policies do not provide sufficient impulses to push future development of and employment in research and knowledge-intensive technology while a strong RES promoting policy, such as in the accelerated deployment policy scenario, triggers development and employment in knowledge-intensive and competitive technologies in the future. A strong increase in RES technologies such as wind power, photovoltaics and solar thermal electricity is responsible for roughly 50 % of the gross employment increase in 2030 compared to a no-policy situation. The technology pattern of RES deployment under this accelerated deployment policy scenario reflects (and justifies) the high promotion and hence the additional generation costs for these knowledge-intensive technologies which are being established successfully in the market, contributing to export and technological competitiveness and thus also to employment. 3.1.3: LOOKING TO THE FUTUREThe RES sector is already very important in terms of employment and value added in the EU. This sector’s contribution to GDP and employment in Europe is likely to be accelerated if current policies are improved in order to reach the agreed target of 20 % RES in Europe by 2020. Two objectives for increasing the share of RES are the reduction of CO2 emissions and other environmental impacts and the increased security of supply due to reduced dependency on imported fossil fuels. It is often stressed that these two key energy policy objectives — security of supply and environmental sustainability — should be targeted without sacrificing the third — economic sustainability. It is therefore of immense value that increasing the share of RES not only does not harm the economy, but actually benefits it by creating jobs and increasing GDP. After considering the renewable energy sector, this report now turns to the transport sector, which is one of the key sectors that will be affected by climate change and the pressure to change energy production and consumption. Directory: pub -> ECD ECD -> Commission staff working document ECD -> Table of contents I instruments Error: Reference source not found ECD -> Table of annexes annex I: Glossary 4 ECD -> En commission of the european communities brussels, 12. 12. 2008 com(2008) 853 final annex annex II to VIII ECD -> Report from the commission to the european parliament and the council european community safa programme aggregated information report ECD -> Report from the commission european community safa programme ECD -> Commission of the european communities brussels, 24 2008 ECD -> Commission staff working document ECD -> Communication from the commission to the european parliament, the council, the european economic and social committee and the committee of the regions ECD -> Annex I iccat species Download 1.43 Mb. Share with your friends:
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