IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v36y2011i10p5994-6003.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Green economy and green jobs: Myth or reality? The case of China’s power generation sector

Author

Listed:
  • Cai, Wenjia
  • Wang, Can
  • Chen, Jining
  • Wang, Siqiang

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between the green economy and green jobs in China through the following question: Can the current GHG mitigation policies in China’s power generation sector bring more jobs to China? Using both analytical and input–output models this paper analyzes the direct and indirect employment impacts of two main mitigation policies in the power generation sector. This paper proves that the above-mentioned question is not simple. Mitigation policies in China’s power generation sector from 2006 to 2009 caused a total of 44 thousand net jobs losses. However, as the share of renewable energy that has an indirect employment impacts increased in 2010, the policies from 2006 to 2010 actually resulted in 472 thousand net job gains. This paper asserts that to ensure the co-existence of green economy and green jobs in China’s power generation sector, policy makers should further promote solar PV, biomass and wind technologies. In 2010, for every one percent increase in the share of solar PV generation there could be a 0.68% increase in total employment in China, larger than any other power generation technology. Finally, this paper argues that a matching educational system and personnel structure is also needed.

Suggested Citation

  • Cai, Wenjia & Wang, Can & Chen, Jining & Wang, Siqiang, 2011. "Green economy and green jobs: Myth or reality? The case of China’s power generation sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(10), pages 5994-6003.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:36:y:2011:i:10:p:5994-6003
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2011.08.016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544211005469
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2011.08.016?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lehr, Ulrike & Nitsch, Joachim & Kratzat, Marlene & Lutz, Christian & Edler, Dietmar, 2008. "Renewable energy and employment in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 108-117, January.
    2. Shen, Yung-Chi & Chou, Chiyang James & Lin, Grace T.R., 2011. "The portfolio of renewable energy sources for achieving the three E policy goals," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 2589-2598.
    3. Kenley, C.R. & Klingler, R.D. & Plowman, C.M. & Soto, R. & Turk, R.J. & Baker, R.L. & Close, S.A. & McDonnell, V.L. & Paul, S.W. & Rabideau, L.R. & Rao, S.S. & Reilly, B.P., 2009. "Job creation due to nuclear power resurgence in the United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4894-4900, November.
    4. Wei, Max & Patadia, Shana & Kammen, Daniel M., 2010. "Putting renewables and energy efficiency to work: How many jobs can the clean energy industry generate in the US?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 919-931, February.
    5. International Labour Organization., 2010. "Global employment trends : January 2010," Global Employment Trends Reports 994531463402676, International Labour Office, Economic and Labour Market Analysis Department.
    6. da Graça Carvalho, Maria & Bonifacio, Matteo & Dechamps, Pierre, 2011. "Building a low carbon society," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 1842-1847.
    7. Groscurth, H.-M & de Almeida, A & Bauen, A & Costa, F.B & Ericson, S.-O & Giegrich, J & von Grabczewski, N & Hall, D.O & Hohmeyer, O & Jörgensen, K & Kern, C & Kühn, I & Löfstedt, R & da Silva Mariano, 2000. "Total costs and benefits of biomass in selected regions of the European Union," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 25(11), pages 1081-1095.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cartelle Barros, Juan José & Lara Coira, Manuel & de la Cruz López, María Pilar & del Caño Gochi, Alfredo, 2017. "Comparative analysis of direct employment generated by renewable and non-renewable power plants," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 542-554.
    2. Lund, Henrik & Hvelplund, Frede, 2012. "The economic crisis and sustainable development: The design of job creation strategies by use of concrete institutional economics," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 192-200.
    3. Fanning, Tim & Jones, Calvin & Munday, Max, 2014. "The regional employment returns from wave and tidal energy: A Welsh analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 958-966.
    4. Bohlmann, H.R. & Horridge, J.M. & Inglesi-Lotz, R. & Roos, E.L. & Stander, L., 2019. "Regional employment and economic growth effects of South Africa’s transition to low-carbon energy supply mix," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 830-837.
    5. González-Limón, José Manuel & Pablo-Romero, María del P. & Sánchez-Braza, Antonio, 2013. "Understanding local adoption of tax credits to promote solar-thermal energy: Spanish municipalities' case," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 277-284.
    6. Duscha, Vicki & Fougeyrollas, Arnaud & Nathani, Carsten & Pfaff, Matthias & Ragwitz, Mario & Resch, Gustav & Schade, Wolfgang & Breitschopf, Barbara & Walz, Rainer, 2016. "Renewable energy deployment in Europe up to 2030 and the aim of a triple dividend," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 314-323.
    7. Lehr, Ulrike & Lutz, Christian & Edler, Dietmar, 2012. "Green jobs? Economic impacts of renewable energy in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 358-364.
    8. Arvanitopoulos, T. & Agnolucci, P., 2020. "The long-term effect of renewable electricity on employment in the United Kingdom," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    9. Jinwon Bae & Sandy Dall'erba, 2016. "The economic impact of a new solar power plant in Arizona: Comparing the input-output results generated by JEDI vs. IMPLAN," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(1-2), pages 61-73, March.
    10. Baer, Paul & Brown, Marilyn A. & Kim, Gyungwon, 2015. "The job generation impacts of expanding industrial cogeneration," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 141-153.
    11. Andini, Corrado & Cabral, Ricardo & Santos, José Eusébio, 2019. "The macroeconomic impact of renewable electricity power generation projects," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 1047-1059.
    12. van der Zwaan, Bob & Cameron, Lachlan & Kober, Tom, 2013. "Potential for renewable energy jobs in the Middle East," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 296-304.
    13. Simas, Moana & Pacca, Sergio, 2014. "Assessing employment in renewable energy technologies: A case study for wind power in Brazil," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 83-90.
    14. Quentin Perrier & Philippe Quirion, 2016. "La transition énergétique est-elle favorable aux branches à fort contenu en emploi ? Une approche input-output pour la France," Working Papers 2016.09, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    15. Abdulla Alabbasi & Jhuma Sadhukhan & Matthew Leach & Mohammed Sanduk, 2022. "Sustainable Indicators for Integrating Renewable Energy in Bahrain’s Power Generation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-19, May.
    16. Sijm, Jos & Lehmann, Paul & Chewpreecha, Unnada & Gawel, Erik & Mercure, Jean-Francois & Pollitt, Hector & Strunz, Sebastian, 2014. "EU climate and energy policy beyond 2020: Are additional targets and instruments for renewables economically reasonable?," UFZ Discussion Papers 3/2014, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).
    17. Zerrahn, Alexander, 2017. "Wind Power and Externalities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 245-260.
    18. Chee Tahir, Aidid & Bañares-Alcántara, René, 2012. "A knowledge representation model for the optimisation of electricity generation mixes," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 77-83.
    19. Wiser, Ryan & Bolinger, Mark & Heath, Garvin & Keyser, David & Lantz, Eric & Macknick, Jordan & Mai, Trieu & Millstein, Dev, 2016. "Long-term implications of sustained wind power growth in the United States: Potential benefits and secondary impacts," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 146-158.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:36:y:2011:i:10:p:5994-6003. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.