The French newspaper Le Monde casts doubts on forecasts that a wave of new "green jobs" is on the way, as claimed by both the French and U.S. governments.
The left-of-center paper queries President Barack Obama’s pre-election pledge that he would rapidly create 5 million "green jobs" in the United States and French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s recent prediction that France would generate 600,000 similar jobs by 2020 through major investments in environmental construction, transportation, and renewable energy.
Sarkozy’s figure was taken from a report hastily put together in June by the Paris branch of Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The Le Monde analyst, Marie-Béatrice Baudet, says some economists find the report unconvincing, because it relies on optimistic forecasts of consumer spending and fails to take account of changes in energy prices.
Promises of a surge in job creation have "a taste of déjà vu," recalling the false hopes raised by the "dot-com" boom ten years ago, and should be treated with caution, Baudet says.
She quotes a warning by Robert Bell of Brooklyn College, City University of New York, that a "green bubble" may be developing as a result of government fiscal incentives for the environmental sector and a rising stock market.
