India’s shift to renewable energy can create 3 million jobs by 2030: Report

India can add about 3 million new jobs by 2030, provided 40 percent of the country’s electricity is generated through renewables, according to a report by IndiaSpend.

The report quotes a study carried out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), an arm of the United Nations. The ILO report studies how climate change mitigation will have an effect on jobs in India and across the globe.

According to the study, a rise in the percentage of renewables used to generate electricity — which is 7.5 percent in India as of February 2018 — will “more than offset” over 259,000 jobs that can be lost by scaling down of carbon and resource-intensive industries.

The publication states that all the sectors in India’s economy, except mining, would see a rise in employment by 2030.

The ILO study estimates a net increase of “approximately 2.8 million jobs” if sustainable practices such as changes in energy mix, growth in use of electric vehicles and improved energy efficiency in “existing and future buildings” are adopted.

“The findings of our report underline that jobs rely heavily on a healthy environment and the services it provides,” ILO deputy director-general Deborah Greenfield told the publication.

Last month, Power Minister RK Singh had said the country hopes to touch renewable power capacity of 225 gigawatts by March 2022. “We will cross the target of 175 GW of renewable energy before 2022,” Singh had said, referring to the commitment made by India during the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015. India had committed to install 175 GW of renewable power capacity by 2022.

The ILO report also estimates an average loss of 5.7 years of working life per person in India every year for over 15 years till 2015. This was a result of natural disasters caused or worsened by human activities.

The report further states that heat stress would be one of the prime causes of reduced working hours in the future with over 64 percent of agricultural workers’ hours lost due to heat stress in 2030.

Source: MONEYCONTROL