How the Inflation Reduction Act will spur job creation in the climate tech sector
Tweet
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) aims to support and increase jobs in the US climate sector. The US is slowly moving away from fossil fuels in search of green alternatives. As this trend persists, a large number of jobs will be created anew.
These jobs will accommodate the renewable energy creation of the country and help mitigate climate change. In time, America will be producing goods and services in the clean energy sector. The IRA is a good step toward sustainable job creation.
BlueGreen Alliance released an analysis in August which estimates that climate, energy, and environmental investments of the IRA will create 9 million jobs in the environmental sector by the year 2032. This means we can expect around 900,000 new jobs to be created every year in the coming decade.
Vice president of industrial policy at BlueGreen Alliance, Ben Beachy, says that "The vast majority of the jobs would be nonmanagement jobs … more accessible." This is important because recently there has been an increase in the number of analytical and engineering jobs in climate tech. Though these positions are important they do not represent the working population without advanced STEM degrees.
BlueGreen Alliance estimates that almost 900,000 jobs will be created in the manufacturing sector in the coming decade. This sector includes industries such as turbine and solar panel manufacturing, electric vehicle (EV) battery production, and reduced emissions steel and cement production.
Beachy focuses on the scale of the investment IRA has in manufacturing, "There are over $50 billion in clean manufacturing investments in the bill, many of which are the first of their kind to invest in climate tech to help reduce emissions from the industrial sector, which is a large, overlooked and growing source of chronic pollution."
Communities that were affected by the closure of coal mines or coal-fired power plants have $4 billion set aside for them. This investment will go toward boosting job growth and creating equity in communities facing hardships. The investment may be used to create manufacturing facilities that produce wind, battery, solar, EVs, and other forms of climate tech.
PREVIOUS ARTICLES
The widening labor shortfall in the US construction sector could affect the infrastructure upgrades
100 resume adjectives which make your resume more compelling