“The Philippines has about 120,000 RE workers and will need an additional 350,000 by 2030 to meet its clean energy targets.”
ALBAY — Renewable energy (RE) installations worldwide hit a record high in 2024, but job growth slowed to 2.3 percent, reaching 16.6 million jobs, according to the 2025 annual review by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The report cited geopolitical tensions, economic frictions, and automation as factors reshaping the renewable energy workforce. Solar, wind, and biofuels continue to expand, but employment gains remain uneven across regions.
China created about 7.3 million RE jobs in 2024, accounting for 44 percent of the global total. The European Union held steady at 1.8 million jobs, Brazil reported 1.4 million, while India and the United States saw modest increases to 1.3 million and 1.1 million, respectively. In terms of technology, solar photovoltaics (PV) led with 7.3 million jobs, followed by liquid biofuels (2.6 million), hydropower (2.3 million), and wind (1.9 million).
By contrast, the Philippines has about 120,000 RE workers and will need an additional 350,000 by 2030 to meet its clean energy targets, according to ILO Philippines Country Director Khalid Hassan in a July 2025 media interview.
Calls for inclusion
In a statement, IRENA Director?General Francesco La Camera urged governments to put “people at the center of energy and climate objectives” through trade and industrial policies that build domestic capacity and skilled workforces. ILO Director?General Gilbert F. Houngbo added that disability inclusion is “essential for resilient labor markets and sustainable development.”
The IRENA–ILO review stressed that without stronger investment in training and inclusion, countries worldwide risk missing RE’s full socio?economic benefits, with Asia and the Global South most at risk because rapid deployment often outpaces workforce training, inclusion policies, and domestic supply chain development.
Philippine context
The Philippines aims to source 35 percent of its power from renewables by 2030. According to the Department of Labor and Employment Institute for Labor Studies, this expansion must be matched with workforce training and skills development. The Department of Energy identifies solar PV, hydropower, and geothermal as the country’s main employment drivers.
The ILS said that growth depends on upskilling and fair labor practices, adding that engineering and technical professions are expanding but attention to occupational safety, wages, and gender equality remains critical.
The Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) stressed that achieving RE targets requires grid modernization, smart technologies, and distributed systems, and that these changes imply significant workforce needs, from engineers to rural capacity?builders. Its local initiatives like solarizing municipal buildings in Samar also demonstrate how clean energy can generate community?level employment and inclusivity.
Experts warned that expanded grid and transmission capacity would determine whether RE can scale in the country.
As Northern Samar Planning and Development Office Head Jay Keenson Acebuche said in an ICSC statement, “(t)he critical part here is the grid and transmission. No matter how favorable the business climate is for renewable energy, no matter how ready civil society organizations are, and no matter how much money investors have, it will all boil down to transmission.”IRENA said that the clean energy transition will only deliver its promise if nations invest as much in people as in power, a point Greenpeace made more than a decade ago in its report that renewables can generate more employment opportunities and foster stronger communities than fossil fuels. (DAA)
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