Many have argued that switching to a renewable energy structure in the short term would really put the economy on the rocks. But a new report put out by Greenpeace and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) called Working for the Climate shows that moving to a renewable energy economy while phasing out dirty energies like coal would create 2.7 million new jobs!

Perhaps more surprising than the statistics pointing to new jobs with a renewable energy push (are we surprised?) is the conclusion that continuing with business as usual could actually lead to additional job losses.

We found that under the Energy [R]evolution scenario, there would be an overall increase of around 2 million power sector jobs over 20 years. But if we carry on without measures to make the shift to clean energy, we will see sector-wide job losses – half a million energy supply jobs would disappear between 2010 and 2030.

As one way of proving the stability of the renewable sector, they cite these statistics:

According to the UNEP Report “Global Trends in sustainable Energy Investment 2009”, investment in the sustainable energy market has in some ways defied the global recession growing by around 5%—from  $148 billion in 2007 to around $155 billion in 2008.

These kinds of reports fly in the fact of clean energy deniers who purport that injecting funds into renewable energy will destabilize the economy even more than it already was. In fact, those who have claimed that for every green job created two jobs will be lost, the NREL has this to say:

The analysis by the authors from King Juan Carlos University represents a significant divergence from traditional methodologies used to estimate employment impacts from renewable energy. In fact, the methodology does not reflect an employment impact analysis. Accordingly, the primary conclusion made by the authors – policy support of renewable energy results in net jobs losses – is not supported by their work.

In combination with emissions-savings projects, such as improving building efficiencies and planting forests, the renewable energy sector has tremendous potential to re-employ America and get the country thriving again. And healthier in the process.