According to a report recently published by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), approximately 13.7 million people were employed in the renewable energy sector worldwide in 2022. This figure nearly doubles the 7.3 million jobs the sector had ten years ago.
Photovoltaic solar energy led job generation in 2022, with 4.9 million jobs, comprising over a third of the total workforce in the renewable energy sector. Bioenergy (liquid biofuels, solid biomass, and biogas) generated 3.6 million jobs, and hydropower employed 2.5 million workers.
The report indicates that renewable energies are attracting increasing investment, which is contributing to job creation in more countries.
Most of the so-called “green jobs” are still concentrated in a small group of countries such as China, which accounts for 41%, Brazil, some European Union nations, the United States, and India.
China has over 5.5 million employees in its powerful photovoltaic and wind industries. The second-largest global green employer is Brazil, providing green jobs for 1.4 million people, many of them in biofuels. In the EU, around 1.6 million people work in various subsectors.