Green Jobs and the Ethics of Energy - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 138

Chapter 5
Green Jobs and the Ethics of Energy

David Elliott

Overview
This chapter looks fi rst at the social and environmental case for the transition to an
energy supply system based on renewable energy sources and then, in more detail,
at the employment implications of that change. There may be a net increase in
employment, over and above the jobs lost as employment related to fossil and
nuclear energy sources is phased out, but it is argued that, in ethical terms, it is also
important to consider the quality of the new green jobs, as well as their quantity.
Trade union views over the so-called just transition are explored, as are some longer-
term issues concerning sustainable employment patterns in a stable state economy.

1 Introduction

At present, globally, around 80% of the energy that we use comes from burning fos-
sil fuel - coal, oil and gas. The environmental case for switching to nonfossil energy
seems irrefutable, buttressed by the clearly unsustainable nature of our existing
energy system, with climate change being the most obvious and pressing issue. In
this chapter, I look at the social case for the transition and in particular at the claim
that this switch could lead to more and better employment - good jobs in a green
society.
To set the scene, I fi rst look at the record of the existing range of energy supply
technologies in terms of their social and environmental impacts and their resource
limits and at the emergence of new technological options that avoid or limit
these impacts and constraints. The most obvious limit is that coal, oil and gas are all
fi nite planetary resources: so too is uranium. The more we use, the less there is