A new report from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) predicts that alternative energy technologies will create millions of new jobs over the next twenty years, including 11 million in the biofuels industry alone.

The report, Green Jobs: Towards Decent Work in a Sustainable, Low-Carbon World, says that shifting employment and investment patterns adopted in response to the challenges of global warming are already creating new jobs in many sectors and economies, and could create millions more across both the developed and developing world. In sum, UNEP predicts nothing short of a revoluton in the way the world economy will look over the next two decades.

In other highlights, the report has also found that:

The global market for environmental products and services is projected to double from US$1,370 billion (1.37 trillion) per year at present to US$2,740 billion (2.74 trillion) by 2020;

Half of this market is in energy efficiency and the balance in sustainable transport, water supply, sanitation and waste management;

Sectors that will be particularly important in terms of their environmental, economic and employment impact are energy supply, in particular renewable energy, buildings and construction, transportation,basic industries, agriculture and forestry;

Clean technologies are already the third largest sector for venture capital after information and biotechnology in the United States, while green venture capital in China more than doubled to 19 per cent of total investment in recent years;

2.3 million people have in recent years found new jobs in the renewable energy sector alone, and the potential for job growth in the sector is huge. Employment in alternative energies may rise to 2.1 million in wind and 6.3 million in solar power by 2030;

Renewable energy generates more jobs than employment in fossil fuels. Projected investments of US$630 billion by 2030 would translate into at least 20 million additional jobs in the renewable energy sector.

Though the report is generally optimistic about job creation to tackle global warming, it also warns that many of these new jobs can be “dirty, dangerous and difficult.” Sectors of concern, mostly (though not exclusively) in developing countries, include agriculture and recycling, where low pay, insecure employment contracts and exposure to hazardous materials need to be addressed as a matter of priority.

The report is bound to please advocates of renewable energy and will add to a growing evidence base that increased investment in green technologies can boost both the economy and the environment. Earlier this month, a report from the Center for American Progress claimed that a $100 billion investment could see the creation of 2 million green jobs in the U.S. alone.

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