According to a recently published report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Labor Organization (ILO), around 13.7 million people worked in the renewable energy sector worldwide in 2022. This number is almost double the 7.3 million jobs the sector had in 2012.
Solar PV led the way in job creation in 2022 with 4.9 million jobs, representing more than a third of the total workforce in the renewable energy sector. This was followed by bioenergy – which includes liquid biofuels, solid biomass and biogas – with around 3.6 million employees and hydropower with around 2.5 million employees.
The report notes that renewable energy is attracting growing investment, supporting job creation in more and more countries. However, the majority of so-called “green jobs” are still concentrated in a small group of countries such as China, which accounts for 41%, Brazil, some European Union countries, the United States or India. With more than 5.5 million employees in the powerful photovoltaic and wind industries, China is the country with the most jobs. The second country is Brazil, which employs 1.4 million people, many of them in the biofuels sector, while in the EU around 1.6 million people work in various sub-sectors.