Green Jobs and the Ethics of Energy - Ethical Engineering for International Development and Environmental Sustainability - page 155

enough energy and material resources to build the sustainable energy system
(Chefurka 2007 ). To some extent, that depends on how rapidly we want to make the
transition. Given time, some scare materials can be recycled from earlier uses, and
the amount of energy needed to build new renewable systems is falling rapidly as
the technology improves.
For example, energy returned on energy invested (EROEI) ratios are rising for all
of them: wind is now up to 80:1, concentrating solar thermal electric power (CSP)
up to 40:1 and PV solar (the most energy-intensive one) up to 25:1. For comparison
the EROEI for nuclear is around 16:1 and will fall further to maybe 5:1 or less, as
high-grade uranium ores become scarcer: it takes more energy to mine and process
the ore into reactor fuel, to the point when it is not worth doing, even if nonfossil
fuels (including nuclear) can be used for the fuel production process to avoid gener-
ating emissions (Harvey 2010 ). Meanwhile, fossil EROEIs are falling. Indeed some
estimates put them in single fi gures (Harvey 2010 ).
That is worrying for a range of economic and environmental reasons and
strengthens the case for moving away from fossil fuels. We will have to use some
fossil sources for a while, but it can be argued that rather than wasting our fossil fuel
inherence just supplying general needs, until it is all gone, increasingly we should
reduce energy use as much as possible and use as much of this remaining energy as
possible to build the sustainable replacement system (Heinberg 2009 ). Exactly what
the interim and long-term synergies would mean for employment is unclear - it will
depend on the scale and pace of the changeover. However, it seems clear that new
types of job will emerge. In my fi nal section, I want to look at what the implication
of that might be.

9 A Just Transition to Decent Green Jobs

The case for a rapid transition can be made on environmental grounds and also on
broadly social and ethical grounds. In his topic 'Energy and Ethics', Sovacool out-
lines basic principles for the selection of new energy technologies, focusing on
social concerns such as wider democratic involvement and accountability and intra-
generational equity. The analysis above has indentifi ed some specifi c strategic
issues related to how the global energy system should or could develop, some of
which link to the nature of jobs in the new system. The availability of what the
International Labour Organisation calls 'decent work' (congenial, safe, properly
remunerated and sustainable employment) could be seen as an ethical requirement,
a basic right. It seems possible this can be achieved as part of the process of convert-
ing to green energy, but it is not automatic. It will need political struggle. As one
trade unionists has put it, bluntly, 'A green boss is still a boss'.
However, in general, the trade union movement backs change via a just transi-
tion. In its policy document 'Equity, justice and solidarity in the fi ght against cli-
mate change', the International Trade Union Confederation says 'Just transition is a
tool the trade union movement shares with the international community, aimed at