Green technology jobs boost for Spain

MEETING Paris Climate Change Agreement requirements would create an extra 200,000 jobs in Spain and 1.2 million in the European Union as a whole.

According to a report by the European Commission, adopting all the necessary measures to meet the agreement would boost the GDP of the Community bloc by 0.5 per cent by the end of the next decade.

These are two of the main conclusions of the annual study on employment and social affairs of the Community Executive, which this year includes a chapter on the impact of measures to transition to a carbon-free economy.

Spain would be the second country to most benefit by this transition in terms of employment because only Belgium would have a greater percentage increase (0.94 per cent compared to 0.92 per cent for Spain). This works out as 200,000 new jobs for Spain and 60,000 in Belgium. Germany, the third largest beneficiary in relative terms (0.81 per cent), would gain 350,000 additional jobs.

The gains will be small in Poland because the new jobs gained in sectors will be offset by losses in the coal mining industry.

The report also notes that job creation will focus on ‘green’ sectors in both industry and services and especially on the manufacture of renewable technologies and their entire supply chain: base metals, non-metallic minerals, mechanical engineering and computers and optical and electronic equipment, as well as construction and the circular economy.

Employment will fall in the mining, oil and gas sectors and in the supply of electricity and gas (due to increased energy efficiency) and in motor vehicles (due to increased demand for electric vehicles).

Brussels stresses that measures and reforms will be necessary to soften the negative effects on certain groups and regions. These include the need to adopt policies to support the relocation of workers and “profound changes” in the future skills required of employees.