Many new green jobs in the pipeline for SA

A focus on green jobs is part of the new industrial policy plan that is due to go to the cabinet lekgotla this month. Sputnik Ratau, the spokesperson for the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs, said last week that the jobs potential for such a programme was still being refined and would depend on the economic recovery and other new and existing job creation programmes. A study of the environmental goods and services industry in SA estimated that the potential market size by 2013 was between R55bn and R69bn and the potential number of jobs was 114 000. Existing incentives include the renewable energy feed-in tariff, under the National Energy Regulator of SA, that provides price incentives for the development of power projects that use renewable energy. The Department of Environmental Affairs recently announced a R3.7bn allocation from the Clean Technology Fund, for which an implementation plan is being developed. Ratau said tax incentives for cleaner production technologies were also being considered. Full report in Business Report