GLOBE-Net, March 21, 2011 - Climate change action goes hand in hand with job creation, according to a new report by the Pembina Institute, a Canadian not-for-profit think tank.

The report, entitled Reducing Pollution, Creating Jobs, was written by Clare Demerse, the acting director of the Institute's Climate Change program.

The key, Demerse wrote, is to invest in clean energy, which she believes the government is not doing enough of.

She also wrote that if the money the government spent on fossil fuels had been spent on energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy, more jobs could have been created.

"If Canada fails to invest in clean energy in a timely fashion, we risk losing out on manufacturing jobs and export opportunities that a growing global clean energy market can offer." Pembina Report.

According to the report, the government invested eight per cent of its infrastructure stimulus spending on clean energy infrastructure and ended up with a total of 84,000 new jobs available.

If it had dedicated 100 per cent of this money to clean energy infrastructure, 238,000 jobs could have been created.

The report said that the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sector has 10.8 of per cent of all workers classified as environmental employees, making it the largest provider of green jobs.

The next largest provider is the construction sector with 7.4 per cent.

"There appears to be a near-consensus in literature that renewable energy is the pro-job (more labour-intensive) choice, creating more direct jobs than fossil-fuel alternatives," wrote Demerse.

Here are some of the suggestions the report made on how Canadian government can help increase employment:

• Publish and implement a plan to meet our 2020 emission reduction target
  
  
• Put a price on greenhouse gas emissions through a cap-and-trade system or a carbon tax
  
  
• Develop a clean energy employment transition strategy for Canada that would  include skills development, training programs, certification courses and transitional policies for workers and communities whose jobs could be lost or  changed by switching to a greener economy.

The literature on green jobs and on job creation from clean energy policies shows that there is little basis for concern that ambitious climate policy in Canada would cause significant job losses, according to the report.  

Instead, the evidence from Canada and international studies shows that we can tackle climate change while maintaining a growing economy that could employ even more Canadians than 'business as usual.  

According to a 2010 survey by the Environmental Careers Organization of Canada (ECO Canada), a not-for-profit organization that studies Canada's environment industry, there are nearly 700,000 environmental employees in Canada.  

ECO defines the environmental employee as someone who spends 50 per cent or more of their work time on activities associated with environmental protection, resource management or environmental sustainability.  

In 2007, environmental employees represented 3.2 per cent of Canada's total labour force. When the ECO report was released in 2010, they represented four per cent. 

The report also noted that 44 per cent of employers in Canada said they planned to hire environmental workers over the next four years.  

The number of environmental jobs is increasing, but there is concern that we are lagging behind other countries. 

Gregg McLachlan, the founder of the Canadian environmental job-hunting site WorkCabin, told GLOBE-Net that he believes the federal government could be doing more to help bring more green jobs to Canada. 

WorkCabin is Canada's largest environment-focused job-hunting site in Canada and receives almost 200,000 hits a month, according to its website. 

Right now, there are listings by the Vancouver Aquarium, the Adbusters Media Foundation, the Government of Saskatchewan and Bird Studies Canada, among others. 

McLachlan said that the federal government, by protecting what it calls its "fragile economy," is missing out on a big opportunity. 

"If you just stay the way you are, that economy is going to become more in jeopardy because it's not adapting to become more sustainable," he said. 

"We need to stop making excuses and we need to start moving forward," he added. 

In Ontario, where the manufacturing industry has been hit hard, workers have been able to transition into new environmentally-friendly employment areas. Because there are so many workers looking for jobs, wind turbine companies are able to hire their work forces very quickly.  "Rather than think of this as a negative, we're seeing the province look at that as a positive," he said. 

"Other provinces are being hit by the same manufacturing losses. So, we can fill that void with some of these green manufacturers." 

McLachlan said that right now it's the provincial governments, municipalities, organizations and colleges and universities that are taking the biggest steps toward a greener economy. 

"Why do we have a province like Ontario enacting a Green Energy Act? Why aren't we seeing that kind of leadership at a federal level?" he asked. 

"If you look at some other countries around the world... you'll see them adopting. And that's what's not happening in Canada." 

The GLOBE Foundation's recently completed report on BC's Green Economy found that many B.C. technology companies are concerned about the future of Canada's environmental sector. The study polled CEO's and human resource professionals across a wide range of sectors.

"Respondents said that more stringent environmental regulations and increased incentives could help create demand for their products and services, and indicated that a lack of government commitment to some programs and to the enforcement of regulations has stagnated growth in certain green industries," the report said.

The series of reports and studies developed for this research project are available for download here.