- China accounted for 44% of global renewable energy jobs in 2024, led by solar PV manufacturing and deployment
- Global renewable energy employment grew slowly, rising 2.3% to 16.6 million jobs
- The report urges stronger cooperation to help regions like Africa expand green jobs and skills
A new report has stated that China continues to be the key player in the global transition to clean energy, having accounted for almost 50% of the global renewable energy workforce, despite the fact that there were already signs of job growth in the sector starting to slow down and that African countries were looking for partnerships to increase the number of green industries and employment opportunities.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) jointly published the Renewable Energy and Jobs – Annual Review 2025, which revealed that there was a slight increase of 2.3 percent in global total of renewable energy workers in 2024, which had reached 16.6 million jobs.
Out of this number, China alone contributed approximately 7.3 million jobs, which is 44 percent of the global figure. The primary reason for this situation is the Chinese government’s support for solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing and the country’s multiple renewable energy projects.
Among the renewable energy sources, solar PV remained the largest employer globally and approximately supported about 7.3 million people worldwide as jobs. China was among the countries that helped through approximately 4.2 million people, thus emphasizing its leading role in the clean energy supply chain globally.
The report highlights that the differences in the distribution of jobs in the renewable energy sector are becoming larger and urges the same cooperation among countries, government measures that would favor the industry, and the availability of the supply chain to take the full socio-economic benefits from the energy transition.
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IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera stated that although the clean energy technology is deployment faster, the policies should deal with people and their livelihoods as much as with technology.
"Governments must put people at the centre of their energy and climate objectives through trade and industrial policies that drive investment, build domestic capacity, and develop a skilled workforce along the supply chain”, he added.
For the African continent which has the fastest-growing population in the world and most urgent power needs, it would be a very good economic and development opportunity to have a renewable energy workforce that is bigger.
The report, however, maintains that the African continent currently counts only a small percentage of the global total of renewable energy jobs emphasizes that building local capabilities through training, manufacturing, and assembly will be essential.
It is likely that building partnerships with countries such as China, through platforms like the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation, would be of great importance for the transfer of technology and the skills development of the workforce across the African economies.