The Labor Center Green Economy Program conducts research on issues of job creation, quality, access, and training in the emergent green economy. In addition, we provide research and technical assistance to state agencies, labor, and other stakeholders who are engaged in developing and implementing policy related to energy and climate change in California and nationally.
September 8, 2022
The Labor Center welcomes new co-directors of the Green Economy Program
August 18, 2022
The Inflation Reduction Act Charts a Path that is Pro-Climate and Pro-Worker
April 13, 2021
High-Road Jobs and Climate Action: Lessons from California for the Nation
September 3, 2020
Putting California on the High Road: A Jobs and Climate Action Plan for 2030
The California Energy Commission just announced that Carol Zabin has been awarded a 2022 Clean Energy Hall of Fame Award for Lifetime Achievement! This annual award honors those who have made exceptional contributions to our state’s progress toward a 100 percent clean energy future.
We are thrilled to announce and welcome our new co-directors of the Labor Center’s Green Economy Program: Dr. Jessie HF Hammerling and Francisco Arzu.
After decades of inaction and failed attempts, the U.S. has finally passed federal legislation addressing climate change. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is groundbreaking not only in its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also in how it demonstrates that we don’t have to choose between good jobs and action on the climate. By including strong labor standards in incentives for clean energy and energy efficiency work, the IRA will help build a high-road green economy, creating good jobs and clear pathways into them.
Final Report for UC Berkeley Contract with the Contractor State License Board for contract CSLB-20-01, entitled “Energy Storage Systems Consultant Services”
A series of briefs summarizing the recommendations for some of the critical climate sectors addressed in the Jobs and Climate Action Plan for 2030: electricity generation, energy efficiency, electric vehicle manufacturing and charging infrastructure, public transit and infill development, trucking, and waste.
Carol Zabin discusses the skills upgrade program EVITP, which prepares electrical workers for jobs related to state climate investments in electric vehicle charging stations.
“There’s up to five times the level of incentives for paying prevailing wages and using apprenticeships on clean-energy construction projects,” according to Jessie Hammerling, co-director of the Green Economy program at the University of California, Berkeley, Labor Center. “Businesses willing to invest are well positioned to take over the new work.”
“I think that creating a more sustainable economy creates good-paying jobs for workers who already have those skills,” said Enrique Lopezlira, a labor economist at the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education.
“All these new jobs that are going to be created [in] actually implementing the work needed to respond to climate change and shift our economy away from fossil fuels are jobs that we want to be good jobs, union jobs, and well-paid jobs with good career pathways,” Hammerling said. “It’s giving the building trades the opportunity to be at the center of building the clean energy economy.”
A widely-cited report authored by Carol Zabin of the UC Berkeley Labor Center casts a similar critical light on the owner-model, as it shifts risks and costs to the drivers.
Francisco Arzu
Co-Director, Green Economy Program
Jessie HF Hammerling
Co-Director, Green Economy Program
Carol Zabin
Senior Advisor on the Green Economy
