India To Create Over 300,000 Jobs In Renewable Sector By 2022: International Labour Organisation

Expressing optimism about job growth in the renewable energy sector, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said that India is set to create over 3 lakh new jobs in the wind and solar energy sector by 2022, Financial Express has reported.

India has set for itself a target of 175 gigawatts of renewable energy generation by 2022 and the sector is to witness massive job production if the country moves to meet the target. The organisation has also said that the the new jobs will ‘more than’ offset the losses in the traditional carbon-dependent energy industry.

ILO has made the prediction in its annual report titled ‘World Employment and Social Outlook 2018: Greening with Jobs’ based on surveys of developers, manufacturers and solar and wind companies. It has however said that the job creation is conditional to the government commitment towards vocational training and the domestic capacity to meet the infrastructure requirements.

“To meet the target, the number of workers required by ground-mounted solar, rooftop solar and wind power projects, will need to increase. The potential for employment creation is conditional on the domestic capacity of solar module manufacturing and the establishment of vocational training programmes and certification schemes,” the report says.

It has also said that by 2030, more than 24 million new jobs will be created in the sector while six million jobs will be lost in the transition from industries reliant on carbon-based production.

While India and several European countries are forecast to add more jobs in the energy sector, Middle East and Africa are forecast to have a negative job growth if they continue to rely on mining and fossil fuels.