ECONOMICS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY,ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GREEN JOBS

VARTA-VOL-XXXII,NO-2,OCTOBER 2011,13-25

ECONOMICS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY, ECONOMIC GROWTH AND GREEN JOBS

DEBESH BHOWMIK

(International Institute for Development Studies, Kolkata)

Keywords- Renewable energy, Sustainable development , Green jobs

JEL-Q2 ,   Q56,    J62,

Abstract

Renewable energy has its potentiality to enrich the process of sustainable development path showing enhance growth of green jobs.In energy consumption, the world’s share of renewable energy constitutes only 16%where global renewable energy increased from 200GW in 2008 to 312GW in 2010.The top five countries are USA, China, Germany, Spain and India.Other than the solar and wind energy,the geothermal,ocean energy,ethanol and bio-diesel and nuclear power production are accelerating.World investment in those sectors are stepping up gradually to 17.9 trillion dollar in 2030 from which 4289 mt could be produced in 2030 compared to 1364 mt in 2001.Stern(1993, 2000),Masih and Masih(1996) and many others found that energy is significant in explaining GDP in time series data (significant in India,Pakistan,Indonesia etc) but Yu and Jin(1992),Kaufmann (1992) and a few writers found no direct relation between energy and GDP.Renewable energy use has a direct impact on the sustainable development which essentially improves quality of life in a way that can be sustained, economically and environmentally, over the long term supported by the institutional structure of the country.The social energy, economic energy indicators andthe environmental energy indicators can determine the sustainable development.The barriers in the use of renewable energy resources such as lack of information,lack of knowledge,discrimination against sources,lack of training,and R&D can hinder the path of sustainable development.The potentiality of renewable energy in creating green job is high for which national energy policy aligned with international energy policy should be built up with strong governance.