3 October 2012: A policy brief by the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Implementing Agreement on Renewable Energy Technology Deployment (RETD), titled “Renewable Energy and Employment,” discusses findings of studies on the impact of renewable energy deployment on employment, and provides recommendations for policy-makers.

The policy brief is the outcome of a project called “IEA-RETD EMPLOY,” which was established to develop methodological guidelines for assessing the impact of renewable energy use on employment. The project focused specifically on electricity generation from renewable sources.

The brief indicates that the project found existing studies on this topic are difficult to compare due to the various methodologies they use. From these studies, however, the project was able to conclude that deployment of renewable energy contributes positively to employment both regarding the number of jobs generated in the renewable energy sector as well as economy-wide.

The policy brief also provides three recommendations to policy-makers: to support the development of calculation models, improvement of data availability and data quality, and the standardization of calculation approaches; to treat employment studies with caution due to the sensitivity of the outcomes on the use of assumptions and the quality of the input data; and to use the outcomes of employment impact studies in broader national socio-economic and environmental contexts. In order to better compare economy-wide employment impact studies and analyze the assumptions and input variables used, the project also established a checklist for policy makers to use in evaluating studies. [IEA-RETD EMPLOY Project] [Publication: Renewable Energy and Employment]