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Transport is responsible for one fifth of all of Germany’s CO2 emissions, but at the same time, it’s also responsible for a lot of jobs. Does that mean our colleagues employed in the industry will all be out of work if we start paying more attention to the environment? Not at all!
As part of a wide-ranging study on the prospects for a green mobility transition, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation talked to workers, trade unions, works councils, and activists in the environmentalist movement, sat down, and crunched the numbers. If we want to implement a real mobility transition in Germany, moving away from combustion engines and towards public transport, cycling, and e-mobility, it will also take a lot of new production. New control systems, tracks, and workshops are needed for new trains, e-buses, and commercial e-vehicles, cargo bikes, etc. — both for domestic use in Germany as well as for moderate export.
Doubling the number of passengers in public transport, rail, and bicycle traffic would create up to 314,000 additional jobs. If we combine that with a 30-hour week, even more new jobs are possible. What all this means is that we’re not just talking about a few extra jobs, but rather about expanding employment in a core area of the German industrial sector.
To learn more, check out our new policy paper, “Switching Lanes”: https://www.rosalux.de/en/switching-lanes
We’ve packed the studies’ most important findings into a shorter publication, “And What about My Job?”, available here: https://www.rosalux.de/en/publication/id/45668
