US green economy’s growth dwarfs the fossil fuel industry’s

Enlarge / A new solar array at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. (credit: NIST)

While US President Donald Trump may be "the world's most powerful climate change denier," our latest research suggests that he took over a thriving green economy.

According to new data, by 2016 it was generating more than $1.3 trillion in annual revenue and employed approximately 9.5 million people-making it the largest green market in the world. It has been growing rapidly, too-between 2013 and 2016, both the industry's value and employment figures grew by 20%.

For some time, economic data on the green economy in many countries has been lacking. In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics stopped measuring jobs in the green economy in March 2013 due to budget cuts. This meant that US politicians were not able to make informed decisions about the relative merits of supporting green industry or backing fossil fuels-as Trump had pledged to do during his 2016 campaign.

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