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US and China government advisers support low-carbon shift to create jobs

11 December 2009

Close advisers to the US and Chinese governments have supported progressive action on climate change to create millions of new jobs. They are co-authors of a new report - Low-Carbon Jobs in an Interconnected World  -  forecasting the creation of around 20 million job opportunities by 2020 in eight countries as a result of the move to use more low-carbon energy.

John Podesta, Director of the Center for American Progress, who ran President Obama's transition team said:

"This report proves that the 93 heads of state convening at Copenhagen don't have to make a choice between jumpstarting lagging economies and promoting a clean energy policy. By transforming the global economy beyond dirty carbon energy, we show that leaders can easily make the prudent choice to create millions of jobs in a new green and clean economy."

Professor Jiahua Pan of the Research Centre for Sustainable Development in Beijing, one of the Beijing government's council of climate advisers said:

"In China, the creation of large numbers of jobs – low or high carbon – is what matters at the current stage of large scale industrialisation and urbanisation. But we have shown in our study that more jobs can be created through a comprehensive shift towards a low-carbon economy as opposed to continuing to develop as we currently are.  As well as creating jobs through cleaner energy, energy efficiency, forestation and a green life style, this approach would also reduce carbon emissions substantially."

Download Low-Carbon Jobs in an Interconnected World.

Contact in Copenhagen

David Nash, GCN secretariat, +44 (0)7889 092730 / d.nash@ippr.org