6.5 million people ( and I )

This is the amount of people that are currently working in the renewable energy industries according to a recent report from the IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency )

Bioenergy ( everything from liquid biofuels to modern biomass and biogas ) have the largest contingency with 2.5 million people (with 1.4 million, 0.8 million and 0.3 million respectively)

Additionally 2.3 million people are working in the solar photovoltaic sector and 800 000 more work in the wind sector.

In decreasing order, the largest employers were China, Brazil, the United States, India, Germany, Spain and Bangladesh. Other notable forces include Japan, Malaysia and Australia.

In the EU it is worth noting that Germany and Spain are leading with 371 000 and 114 000 jobs, respectively. The other EU members collectively have 760 000.

That’s right, more than 1.2 million people work in renewable in the European Union. That’s double the amount of the USA. (Granted, both populations do not have the same size : around 500 million in the EU and over 300 in the USA ).