Environment- Unfriendly Jobs Dwindle, Study Says

by Danielle Knight

In the last few years, U.S. coal, oil and gas industries have reinforced the polarization between workers and the environment by proclaiming that the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement that limits the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases a country can emit, is a profound threat to jobs and economic prosperity.

But after a close examination of the employment market, analysts here say jobs are more likely to be at risk where environmental standards are low and where innovation in favor of cleaner technologies is lagging behind subsidies to fossil fuels.

According to a new report released here September 21, most mining and logging jobs are at risk even in the absence of tougher environmental laws. Increased mechanization and automation and companies moving operations overseas have been the real reason for job loss, it says.

"Job loss due to environmental regulations has been extremely limited -- less than one-tenth of 1 percent of all layoffs in the United States," says Michael Render, author of "Working for the Environment," a new report by the Worldwatch Institute.

The industries that extract and process fossil fuels and raw materials are among the most polluting of human activities, but provide only a small and declining number of jobs, he says.

In the United States, mining, utilities, and four manufacturing industries (including metal processing, paper, oil refining and chemicals) together account for about 84 percent of all toxic pollutants released into the air, water and soil.

But their workforces account for less than 3 percent of all private sector jobs, he says.

In the many communities that have revolved around one industry, such as mining or logging, only diversifying the job market and employment opportunities can save these towns, he argues.

There is a "huge potential" to create new jobs outside the traditional fossil fuel industries that do not depend on processing enormous one-way flows of raw materials and turning natural resources into mountains of waste, he says.

From recycling and re-manufacturing goods, to greater energy and materials efficiency and the development of renewable sources of energy, many new opportunities for job creation are emerging, according to the report.

"Creating an environmentally sustainable economy has already generated an estimated 14 million jobs worldwide, with the promise of millions more in the 21st century," says Worldwatch.

In 1999, there were an estimated 86,000 jobs worldwide in manufacturing and installing wind turbines, a number that has doubled in the last two years, according to the Washington-based environmental think-tank.

By 2020, the report estimates that wind power could account for ten percent of all electricity generation and employ about 1.7 million people.

Currently, the United States solar photovoltaic industry directly employs nearly 20,000 people. European solar heat companies employ more than 10,000 people, a number the report says could grow by at least 70,000 in the next decade and perhaps to 250,000 with strong government support.

Worldwide, the recycling industry now processes more than 600 million tons of materials annually, according to the report. This includes metals, stainless steel, paper, textiles, plastics and rubber. With an annual turnover of $160 billion, the industry employs more than 1.5 million people.

The re-manufacturing of products is also becoming serious business, particularly in areas like motor vehicle component manufacture, according to Render.

Xerox and Canon are among the companies that are pushing re-manufacturing. Xerox has developed a photocopier of which every part is reusable or recyclable. By 1997, as many as 28 percent of the copiers made were re-manufactured.

In the United States, re-manufacturing is already a $53 billion per year business and directly employs about 480,000 people.

"This is double the number of jobs in the U.S. steel industry or about 0.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)," he says.

Walter Stahel with the Product-Life Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, estimates that the re-manufacturing sector in the European Union accounts for about 4 percent of the region's GDP.

Labor unions in the United States, including the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), support Render's study, but stress that environmentalists must recognize that those workers whose jobs are lost -- primarily those in mining, logging and fossil fuels -- will need assistance to make the transition to new skills, technologies and jobs.

John Howley, director of public policy at the SEIU, says the government needs to support "just transition" policies that involve setting up funds to provide income and benefits for displaced workers seeking a new career, tuition support, career counselling and placement services and aid in finding a new job.

"A coalition of labor and environmentalists is needed to change public policy," stresses Howley.

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) here in Washington is promoting the idea of a "just transition" fund that could receive revenues from taxes on fossil fuels or on pollution or even receive revenues from a carbon dioxide emission permit trading scheme.

"We can use these funds to reinvest in workers and reinvest in training," says James Barrett, an economist with the Sustainable Economics Program at EPI.