New Report – Clean Energy Transition to Create Australian Jobs

Last week, the ACF and ACTU released a new green jobs report, Creating Jobs—Cutting Pollution. The report demonstrates that “Australia could create more than 770,000 extra jobs by 2030 by taking strong action now to reduce [greenhouse gas] pollution.”

The claim that strong government action to make Australia independent of high-pollution practices will increase rather than decrease employment has only recently come to seem less than counter-intuitive. Increasingly, however, economists have tended to agree wholeheartedly on this with ecologists.

Creating Jobs—Cutting Pollution adds weight to the claim of the excellent job-creation potential of decarbonising the Australia economy. The claim has now been tested through the most detailed economic modelling of the scenario that has ever been done. The report gives predictions of a structurally sounder economy the strongest backing.

In total, the report shows, government action now to cut greenhouse gases by 25 per cent will create 3.7 million extra jobs nationwide by 2030. This represents job growth of up to 45 per cent in some states, and all states benefit. As well, household budgets will be 10 per cent better off. By contrast, weak government action will lead to a weaker economy and lower living standards.

The job-creation figures featured in the ACF/ACTU report resemble findings that Beyond Zero Emissions has identified and will outline in the forthcoming Zero Carbon Australia 2020 – Stationary Energy report.