Renewable energy and jobs: Annual review 2024

The 2024 edition of IRENA’s Renewable energy and jobs series discusses deployment and supply chain trends and highlights the comprehensive policy contexts that shape job creation both today and in the future.

It reveals that interest in localising supply chains through industrial policy-making continues to grow, owing to the desire to capture more value and create jobs domestically, but also as a result of protectionist sentiments, which have become entangled in growing geopolitical and geoeconomic rivalries.

The report also finds that public policies and private sector activities, together with civil society actions, must seek to balance environmental, economic and social sustainability. While markets can be helpful in driving technological change, the global common good is not their primary motivation; therefore, there are trade-offs between an energy transition path that is driven by the pursuit of shareholder profits and one that is inspired by a people- and planet-centric vision.