Renewable energy can generate 8 million jobs

Around 6.9 million people could work in the renewable energy sector and 1.1 million jobs would be created due to the increased efficiency of electrical appliances.

This is reflected in the report "Working for the weather. Renewable energy and the (R) evolution of green jobs," prepared by Greenpeace and the European Council on Renewable Energy (EREC), which shows that in Spain would have at least 170,000 jobs in the industry if one hundred percent renewable electricity was in 2030.

To this we must add at least another 18,000 jobs created by energy efficiency and renewable technology from dedicated to the export, which could be about 200,000 more.

Therefore, the environmental organization has asked the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, to defend a model of development based on renewable energy in the meeting to be held today with the U.S. president, Barak Obama.

Renewables would employ 6.9 million people by 2030, "if world leaders seize the opportunity to invest in a greener future by ensuring a strong treaty on climate summit to be held in Copenhagen in December.

"It is time that world leaders, starting with Zapatero and Obama's speeches leave empty of content and lead the urgent action against climate change," said Juan Lopez de Uralde, director of Greenpeace Spain.

According to Sven Teske, energy expert of Greenpeace International and author of the report, said: "For every job lost in the coal, the energy revolution creates three new jobs in renewable energy. We can choose jobs and green growth or unemployment, and collapse social and economic development ".

Change coal with renewable energy for electricity generation not only avoid the emission of ten billion tons of CO2, but it would create 2.7 million jobs over 2030, that continued with the current energy system, the report said.

By contrast, the coal industry, which currently employs about 4.7 million people worldwide, will reduce more than 1.4 million jobs by 2030, due to rationalization measures in the mines today.

"Renewables have come to give direct employment to over 80,000 people in Spain, but the refusal of the Government reservation policy has caused many of those jobs are lost," Greenpeace complaint.