Experts suggest that in ten years time, the world may generate more energy from clean energy sources than from fossil fuels.
According to the International Labour Organisation, the projected number of green jobs over the next two decades could reach 100 million worldwide. This represents about 2 percent of the future global workforce of over 5 billion by 2030. Some of these green jobs will be newly created jobs, while others will be substitutes for existing jobs.
Eco-Business speaks to Kevin Gibson, chief executive officer of Earthstream Global, to find out more about the trends in resourcing clean energy industries in Asia.
Earthstream Global is one of the world’s leading global recruiting businesses in the energy field. Mr Gibson, a co-founder of the company, started the company in 2009 after seeing the shortage of skills in the energy market – both traditional oil and gas markets and the renewable energy market.
Eco-Business: Is there a significant difference between the Asian green job market and Western green job market?
Mr Gibson: There is a large salary differential in the western world as compared to Asia when it comes to finding specialists. As a result, in the West, a lot of the senior management positions are sourced locally. Whereas here in Asia, they tend to be in situations where they bring in some senior management and hire locals for the lower and middle management.
We’re seeing some movement from the Western world to Asia when it comes to senior management, but we don’t see a volume for that.
EB: What are the key areas that Asian economies should improve in or focus on to strengthen its green job market?
KG: The government needs to be very involved to help its country gain critical mass in renewable energy production. Some policies that could help are feed-in tariffs, easy-to-navigate subsidy programmes, readily available finance, and attracting companies to come in and develop the base. The other thing is to invest in education and training of the local labour force.
EB: How fast is the green job market in Asia growing as compared to the West?
KG: If you do a quick online search of jobs in the green sector, there are literally hundreds and thousands of jobs available in the United States. If you do a similar search in Asia, it’s actually a much smaller amount. The growth is here, but it is from a very low base. The west has been in this sector a lot longer, but it has probably lost the leadership. A lot of Asian countries are moving forward in the green sector as their governments see a lot of potential in this area.
EB: With the growing popularity of renewable energy, what will happen to jobs in the traditional energy market?
KG: To move into green energy projects, it’s important to have critical mass. The large oil companies are probably investing the most. Look at companies like Shell and BP, which have so much money. The concept of an oil company or an energy company will change over time as they look to modify their mix of businesses because they see the growth and they have the money.
What the larger oil companies will do is to start transferring their staff internally into their green projects. It will be the easier way to increase the overall green work force. A lot of these oil companies, which will probably call themselves ‘energy’ companies in the future, will probably buy companies that have good technology but do not have the money to expand. There is an integration of the energy world now, a co-dependency to create solutions that are very different for the future.
EB: Is there a reason for everyone to jump on this green bandwagon?
KG: If you look at everything that we see, this is one of the things that is guaranteed to grow. There is so much government support, and even the average individual now is so much more conscious about their energy use and lifestyle; we’re going to be getting a number of imports which is going to drive a whole new economy.
Another part of this is that so many people want to work in this sector. It’s very easy to attract people to work in this green energy sector because they feel they’re helping the planet and they’re helping the country. So there is a demand from the average person, there is a demand from the government to become energy efficient, and there is an aspiration from most people in the workforce to work in green energy.
EB: The Asia Business Council reports that China possesses the most favourable conditions overall for green jobs creation. How is the green job market developing in China?
KG: They do have a large number of candidates and specialists in there. They’ll not be able to handle further growth in their plans without bringing in some senior management with western expertise… they need to supplement their workforce with international expertise. Looking at the pipeline of projects in China right now as compared to the other parts of the world, management expertise can only develop over time, so as a result we don’t think there are physically enough people to take on (those projects) as management (expertise) comes with time.
Because other parts of the western world has had people working in this sector a little longer, I think there will be a general demand in China to bring in these people. I think the Chinese government looks at all aspects when it comes to building their own clean green sector. I think they will be more open to that. We’ll see more labour mobility in China over time.
EB: What is your outlook on the global economic climate and the upcoming UN climate change talks? How do you think it will affect the green job market in Asia?
KG: The global economic climate is still very weak and will remain uncertain and flat for some time. The economics and businesses will override the global need to co-operate and the desire to get things right for now. It will take a while before we can get a global agreement as it all comes back to the carbon price.
It will not affect the market at all. There are so many other forces of private business and governments creating jobs in this area, as we can see from the exponential growth in green energy.
EB: What will the green job market landscape look like in 10 years time?
KG: I see you will see Asia in quite a dominant position. And you will see a reverse in skill transfer. In the long term, some of the projects that are rolled out and completed by companies in Asia due to government support (will lead to) new world leaders in innovation.
What you will see is a transfer of management back into the western society. I don’t think it is a crazy prediction. We are already seeing rapid exponential growth in Asia for the last three years, and if we keep going with that, the expertise generated as a result will be valuable all over the world. So you’ll see a reversal in that skill movement.
Eco-Business.com’s coverage of the Clean Energy Expo Asia 2010 is brought to you by Conchubar Capital Management.
