27 September, 2012: The International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Renewable Energy Technology Deployment (IEA-RETD) implementing agreement hosted a workshop on “Capitalizing on Renewables – Short and Medium‐term Opportunities and Economic & Employment Benefits.” The workshop was held in Ottawa, Canada on 27 September 2012 and provided an overview of how countries aim to benefit from the growing renewable energy sector.

Following opening remarks from Hans Jørgen Koch, IEA-RETD chair, the workshop saw IEA-RETD country policy cases presented from Canada, USA, Japan and France, illustrating their different approaches to meet policy objectives, secure energy supply, achieve industrial and economic development, and mitigate climate change. Another key focus of the workshop was employment and economic benefits of renewable energy technology. The results of the EMPLOY project were also formally launched at the workshop. Commissioned by IEA-RETD, the EMPLOY project reviewed the methodological aspects of quantifying employment effects, proposed methodological guidelines, and undertook country case studies on implementing these guidelines, including one on Canada. The IEA-RETD workshop also presented examples from Germany and the EU which affirmed that renewable energy deployment creates net jobs and net economic growth if countries play an active role in capitalizing on these opportunities.

The IEA Renewable Energy Technology Deployment officially launched in September 2005. The IEA-RETD’s mandate is to address cross-cutting issues that influence the deployment of renewable energy and to act as a vehicle to accelerate the market introduction of renewable energy technologies. [Press Release with workshop documents and presentations]