If Trump Cares About Jobs, He’ll Stay in the Paris Climate Agreement

One of President Donald Trump's winning campaign platforms was his promise to bring back thousands of jobs in the fossil fuel industry—particularly those lost to the shrinking coal industry— that left entire counties devastated across the country.

But as it turns out, the number of clean energy jobs created in recent years far exceeds those lost to an increasingly outdated form of energy. In fact, the Department of Energy's (DOE) 2017 US Energy and Employment Report, said 3 million Americans were employed in the clean energy sector in 2016. That equals the number of those employed in retail store jobs, and is far more than the tens of thousands of jobs lost in the coal industry.

So this week, a broad coalition of clean energy groups have launched a social media campaign (#cleanenergyjobs) to highlight just how important their industries are to the American economy. They include such organizations as the American Council on Renewable Energy and the American Wind Energy Association.

Image: Statista

Meanwhile, Trump and his cohort have put considerable effort into dismantling Obama-era environmental regulations that they perceive to be killers of these jobs. The losses have been very real and very painful on communities across a broad swath of coal country in Middle America. Over 600 mines have closed since 2009, and production has declined by over 177,000,000 tons.

But the jobs most likely won't come back. Coal is simply not cost-competitive with other types of fuels like natural gas for generating electricity. It no longer generates as much as natural gas, and in 2015, wind and solar made up two thirds of all new electricity-generating capacity in the United States.

During this same period, however, clean energy jobs in the US took off and have showed no sign of slowing down. Investment in zero-carbon electricity generation cracked $500 billion during the last ten years, with $59 billion of investment in the last year alone. Revenue from clean energy goods and services in 2015 surpassed $200 billion—even more than the quickly growing pharmaceutical manufacturing industry.

Wind and solar in particular, have been expanding at a breakneck pace and are gaining on all other energy sectors in job generation—coal, natural gas, and petroleum. From 2015-2016, solar jobs increased 25 percent, and wind jobs 32 percent. By contrast, fossil fuel industry jobs increased by just under 5 percent in that same period.

According to the DOE report, in fact, solar jobs are growing 17 times faster than all others in the US. In 2016, 1 out of every 50 new jobs created was in the solar field.

Whether this administration refuses to take climate change seriously or not—many high ranking officials have either played down its importance, or have flatly denied its existence—most other countries around the world do. In December of 2015, 195 nations agreed to take serious action to curb emissions under the Paris Climate Agreement and are not importing US coal like they used to. American coal exports fell 23 percent in 2015 and 32 percent through the first half of 2016.

Read More: Trump's Plan for Fossil Fuels Will Shrink the Economy

Make no mistake, the coalition pushing the "#cleanenergyjobs" campaign is, at its root, defending its own future and existence. They have a vested interest in urging the current Administration to not rollback environmental incentives and rules to the point where fossil fuel is favored at the expense of clean energy. But if the US pulls out of the Paris Climate Agreement, for example, and turns away from clean energy development, it's not just their companies that will suffer, it's our economy and the environment.

"The Trump administration must stand with the U.S. business community by remaining in international climate accords," said the Environmental Entrepreneurs, one of the groups supporting the jobs campaign.