The green jobs boom in renewable energy

By Paul Hockenos09 July 2012

A wind turbine. Jobs in the renewable energy sector are flourishing. Photo by: Random_fotos / CC BY-SA

Take a look at virtually any international job board and you’ll find: “Green” jobs are flourishing. Though still a niche, they’re at the cutting-edge of development assistance, providing ample opportunity for aid workers to advance sustainable growth around the world.

Green jobs come in many colors. They’re in agriculture, manufacturing, environmental conservation, and research and development. They help to protect ecosystems and biodiversity, reduce energy, materials and water consumption, and minimize waste and pollution.

On any given day, the Devex jobs board – the largest in international development – lists a plethora of opportunities for everyone from watershed managers to experts in reforestation, sewage and sustainable agriculture.

Particularly growing is the demand in the area of renewable energy – the United Nations declaring 2012 the “Year of Sustainable Energy for All” is evidence that this is an idea whose time has come. Recent jobs advertised on the Devex website include a senior development associate for energy and climate, impact evaluation and climate change specialists, and a senior energy economist in Iraq, among many others.

About the author

Paul Hockenos

Paul is a Berlin-based author who has written about Europe since 1989 and is the author of three major books on European politics. From 1997-99 he worked with the international mission in Bosnia and 2003-04 in Kosovo. Since then, Paul has held fellowships with the American Academy in Berlin, the European Journalism College in Berlin, and the German Marshall Fund. He was an editor at Internationale Politik, Germany’s leading foreign affairs journal, for five years.