The Afterlife of German Coal Mining
Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org) - 30 July 2008
This is the second feature in a series on green jobs in various sectors of the global economy.
If the Ruhr can attract Germany's growing renewable energy market, thousands of jobs are likely to follow. A study commissioned by the German government found that in 2006, the country was home to some 259,000 direct and indirect jobs in the renewables sector. Due to several recent government policies that encourage alternative energy, those jobs are expected to climb to 400,000-500,000 by 2020 and to 710,000 by 2030, the study said.
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Wolfgang Jung, the vice managing director of the Ruhr's Gelsenkirchen Science Park, and his three-person staff are working to "promote the Ruhr Valley as a new energy region" as they attract renewable enery businesses. The International Economic Platform for Renewable Energies, a German research institute, says 3,100 renewable energy companies already exist in North Rhine-Westphalia, and they employ 18,500 workers. Jung estimates that one-third of those companies are located in the Ruhr Valley.
But green jobs are unlikely to replace the thousands of mining jobs that will disappear when Germany's mines close. "The jobs are significant, but it cannot be compared to the job losses in the mining and steel industry," Jung said.
Still, green jobs are renewing the landscape and expanding with a booming renewable energy market. While they cannot be the solution for all the problems in the Ruhr, these jobs offer something often lacking for the valley's unemployed: hope.
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