Myth with green collar jobs

GREEN MANIA: JOB CUTS

Real focus should be on reducing pollution and not subsidising jobs
17/05/2009

In December, 2008; about 11,000 metal workers marched before the EU headquarters to protest against EU's new global warming policies which aimed at creating more green collar jobs. They were afraid that their industries would be badly affected by it and they will end losing their jobs. Reason? The new stringent pollution control norms would make their products much more expensive and eventually make them uncompetitive in the global markets. In the US, Obama, on the similar lines, announced his endeavour to boost the green industry and that creating five million green collar jobs is one of the major priorities of his economic recovery plan. He in his speeches, reiterated the efficacy and indispensability of renewable energy and praised Spain and other European countries as to how their governments have utilised their taxpayers’ money in creating employment opportunities and in revolutionising the green industry to make it a blueprint of success. But recent researches show that Spain's investments in creating green collar jobs depict more of a cautionary tale, than what Obama avowed! A recent study by King Juan Carlos University reveals that investments in creating green collar jobs have, in contrast, destroyed many jobs of other industries. The same study states that Spain invests € 571,138 to create a single green job, including subsidies worth over €10,00,000. Moreover, too much focus on the green industry destroys 2.2 jobs in other industries for every job created in the green industry. Going by that estimation, US will lose about 9 jobs for every 4 green jobs it will create and it would have to sacrifice 6.6-11 million jobs in other industries to create 3-5 million green jobs as Obama promised. San Diego is one of the US biggest destinations for green jobs but surprisingly a recent study by the US Conference of Mayors reveals that there has been no considerable change witnessed there in the green collar job market as a result of Obama's promises, supports and subsidies. UK too has been doing everything for the sustainability of green jobs but in reality the green industry is actually firing people. Emergence and growth of green industry is imperative but problem is that the growth is not because of productivity and increase in consumption of green energy. On the contrary, it's more because of massive government investments. The present trend of re-emphasising on creating more green collar jobs rather than productivity is actually encouraging low-paying, less sustainable conditions and making the industry less competitive. Green industry along with green collar jobs should be encouraged, but the way Obama wants, his plan might not yield much results and might end up repeating what most of the European countries ended up with, i.e. more chaos, more protests and of course more pollution and job cuts.