The ACTU (Australian Council of Trade Unions) and The Australian Conservation Foundation released a modeling project to showing that 100,000 new jobs in primary industry, farming and mining, will be created over the next 20 years if a climate change policy is introduced. The report identifies strong renewable energy targets, investment in energy efficiency and an emissions trading scheme as critical policies for the new employment to be realised.
The report shows households will be 10 per cent better by 2030 if strong policies with a price on pollution plus measures including energy efficiency, renewable energy investment and cleaner transport will be introduced.
ACTU President Sharan Burrow said the extra jobs that would be created were not just ‘green collar’ jobs, but new jobs in traditional industries such as agriculture, mining, manufacturing and the services sector.
”The report shows regional areas, even those which produce coal and generate electricity, will have more jobs if we take strong action to cut pollution, but only if we act now,” Burrow said.
“The figures prove action on climate change will not hurt regional workers. We knew that was wrong, so we set out to provide the research evidence to show that. If you can sequester carbon either through biosequestration or soil carbon, or indeed through planting and managing and harvesting trees and forest effectively, just to go to two areas, then you’re actually creating jobs but you’re also acting on environmental concerns.”
Among the states, Queensland leads the way with 45 % jobs growth, followed by Victoria (44 %), WA (34%), NSW (28 %), Tasmania (25 %) and South Australia (20 %).
“Australia’s government and business leaders face a simple choice: invest and innovate now to secure our long-term future or pay the price in extra economic costs, job losses and an increasingly damaged environment if we don’t act.”
Australians want their leaders to show they got a serious plan to shift to a cleaner economy with new industries and better jobs in this election year.
