Publication: Tracking Jobs in Projects Focused on Clean Energy and Productive Uses of Electricity
Loading...
Date
2023-11-30
ISSN
Published
2023-11-30
Editor(s)
Abstract
The transition to clean energy can create job opportunities and support economic activity while advancing the global decarbonization agenda. Many aspects of this transition - including investments in renewable energy; grid strengthening to absorb variable renewable power; decentralized generation, including for energy access; digitization of the energy sector; energy-efficient appliances; and energy efficiency in buildings, industry, and transport have significant potential to create both domestic and local employment. Expanded and improved energy services can not only create jobs in the energy sector, but also boost economic activity and job creation in the broader economy. The expansion of access to energy increases its productive uses. Meanwhile, the retirement of fossil-fuel fired plants and mine closures, among other changes in a clean energy transition, could also potentially lead to job losses. These losses must be accounted for and managed under the global decarbonization agenda. Before providing an overview of what we know of the energy transition’s employment impacts, this discussion paper will focus on job categories.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP). 2023. Tracking Jobs in Projects Focused on Clean Energy and Productive Uses of Electricity. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41077 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Employment Impacts of Clean Energy Investments in Emerging Economies(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-22)Significant scale-up of clean energy, such as renewable energy and energy efficiency, is the most important component of worldwide efforts to address climate change and increase energy access. As clean energy makes a growing contribution to the total energy supply, as countries undertake their energy transitions, it is also expected to create millions of jobs. This review is part of an investigation into how the global energy transition - the move away from fossil fuels, which involves the adoption of new technologies and new service delivery models in the sector can contribute to job creation and support economic activity while advancing the global decarbonization agenda. The objective of this literature review is to understand how existing academic and policy work has assessed the impact of energy-transition-related policies, regulations, and investments on job creation, wages, and other employment-related outcomes. This review covers studies of energy sector jobs as well as jobs created in upstream sectors resulting from energy-transition-related investments and policy changes. The review also includes studies of wider, often economywide, “induced” employment effects. In particular it focuses on the impact of electrification programs using distributed renewable generation, since such programs make it possible to establish causality in job creation more clearly than clean energy projects contributing additional power to existing grids.Publication Search for Clean Cooking Energy(Washington, DC, 2022-12)About two-fifths of the developing world lacked access to clean cooking energy services in 2020. Bottled gas is a clean cooking fuel but is subject to large price volatility and not affordable for many. Electricity is safe and convenient but may not be reliable or affordable. Densified wood pellets in advanced combustion stoves offer an alternative but require careful handling to achieve clean combustion. This brief reviews the pros and cons of these predominant forms of clean cooking energy, focusing on bottled gas.Publication Jobs generated by the Kosovo Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Project(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-22)The Kosovo Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Project (KEEREP) successfully generated direct and indirect employment opportunities in Kosovo through EE retrofits and related activities. The project also contributed to skill development and market growth in the EE sector, potentially leading to further job creation in the future. However, challenges related to the importation of materials and the need for domestic certification were identified as areas for improvement in facilitating domestic job growth. This case study seeks to shed light on the employment impacts associated with World Bank financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy investments in public buildings overseen by the central government as part of the KEEREP.Publication Jobs Generated by the Energy Sector Support Project in Malawi(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-01-23)Rural electrification projects in Malawi generated substantial direct and indirect employment opportunities, particularly in construction and skilled roles. The projects also had an impact on gender disparity in employment and highlighted the need to strengthen domestic capacity for materials and equipment production. Moreover, improved access to electricity and enhanced reliability had positive effects on job creation and enterprise development in the region. This case study seeks to shed light on the employment outcomes associated with the investments made in Malawi’s distribution network including rehabilitation, upgrade, and expansion of priority segments of the existing distribution system under the World Bank–financed Energy Sector Support Project (ESSP), which was approved in 2011 and closed in 2018.Publication Jobs Generated by the Rwanda Development Policy Operations(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-03-22)This report presents the findings and conclusions of a case study undertaken under a program of analytical work that investigates the impacts of the global transition to clean energy on the quantity and quality of jobs in low- and middle-income countries. The World Bank supported the government of Rwanda in institutionalizing least-cost principles for power-sector expansion through a series of three consecutive annual Development Policy Operations (DPOs) between 2017-2018 and 2019-2020. The objective was to enable fiscally sustainable expansion of electricity services in Rwanda while improving operational efficiency, affordability, and accountability. The case study found that while there was some association between electricity reforms and job creation in Rwanda, the link was not straightforward, and the impact on formal employment was limited. Other factors and constraints, as well as the time required for infrastructure improvements to translate into employment outcomes, may have played significant roles in shaping the labor market. In summary, while there was some association between electricity reforms and job creation in Rwanda, the link was not straightforward, and the impact on formal employment was limited. Other factors and constraints, as well as the time required for infrastructure improvements to translate into employment outcomes, may have played significant roles in shaping the labor market.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-16)Global growth is expected to hold steady at 2.7 percent in 2025-26. However, the global economy appears to be settling at a low growth rate that will be insufficient to foster sustained economic development—with the possibility of further headwinds from heightened policy uncertainty and adverse trade policy shifts, geopolitical tensions, persistent inflation, and climate-related natural disasters. Against this backdrop, emerging market and developing economies are set to enter the second quarter of the twenty-first century with per capita incomes on a trajectory that implies substantially slower catch-up toward advanced-economy living standards than they previously experienced. Without course corrections, most low-income countries are unlikely to graduate to middle-income status by the middle of the century. Policy action at both global and national levels is needed to foster a more favorable external environment, enhance macroeconomic stability, reduce structural constraints, address the effects of climate change, and thus accelerate long-term growth and development.Publication World Bank Annual Report 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-25)This annual report, which covers the period from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, has been prepared by the Executive Directors of both the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA)—collectively known as the World Bank—in accordance with the respective bylaws of the two institutions. Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, has submitted this report, together with the accompanying administrative budgets and audited financial statements, to the Board of Governors.Publication Western Balkans 6 Country Climate and Development Report(Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2024-07-16)This Regional Western Balkans Countries Climate and Development Report (CCDR) stands out in several ways. In a region that often lacks cohesive regional alliances, this report emphasizes how the challenges faced across countries are often common and interconnected, and, importantly, that climate action requires coordination on multiple fronts. Simultaneously, it illustrates the differences across countries, places, and people that require targeted strategies and interventions. This report demonstrates how shocks and stressors re intensifying and how investments in adaptation could bring significant benefits in the form of avoided losses, accelerated economic potential, and amplified social and economic spillovers. Given the region’s high emission and energy intensity and the limitations of its current fossil fuel-based development model, the report articulates a path to greener and more resilient growth, a path that is more consistent with the aspiration of accession to the EU. The report finds that the net zero transition can be undertaken without compromising the economic potential of the Western Balkans and that it could lead to higher growth than under the Reference Scenario (RS) with appropriate structural reforms.Publication Reserve Management Survey Report 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-10-27)This survey report represents a collaborative effort between Reserve Advisory and Management Partnership (RAMP) and central banks worldwide to advance the understanding and practice of reserve management. The cooperation of all central banks involved is greatly appreciated, and we anticipate that the findings obtained from this survey will make a valuable contribution to the ongoing success and resilience of central bank reserve management.Publication Greater Heights(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-12)Twenty-seven countries have reached high-income status since 1990. Ten of these are in the Europe and Central Asia region and have joined the European Union. Another 20 in the region have become more prosperous since the 1990s. However, their transition to high-income status has been delayed. These middle-income countries have found that the prospects for growth to high-income status have become even more difficult since the 2007–09 global financial crisis. This reflects partly a slowdown in structural reforms at home and partly the challenges associated with a deterioration in the global environment. The concern has emerged that many countries in the region may be caught in the middle-income trap, a phase in development characterized by a recurring deceleration in growth and by per capita incomes that are systematically below the high-income threshold. To ensure that these countries overcome the obstacles to growth and achieve progress toward high-income status, policy makers need to make the transition from a strategy driven largely by investment to a strategy that is supported by the importation and diffusion of global capital, knowledge, and technology and then to a strategy that complements these with innovation. The report Greater Heights: Growing to High Income in Europe and Central Asia relies on the 3i strategy described in World Development Report 2024—investment, infusion, and innovation—to propose policy options to assist middle-income countries in Europe and Central Asia in the effort to reach high-income status. Drawing on comprehensive empirical analysis, the report offers actionable recommendations that will enable policy makers to advance stronger economic growth across the region. Such a transition will require continued and sustained foundational reform to maximize the drivers of economic growth while pivoting to new transformative reforms to promote the development of more complex economic structures and institutions. These involve the need to discipline incumbents, boost the role of the private sector, strengthen the competitive environment, and reward merit. The emphasis on a strategy driven by innovation is also critically important for those countries that have already attained high-income status.