South Korea Plans to Spend $32M for Green Job Creation

Stimulus packages and bailouts have dominated the economic headlines of late, but perhaps running a close second in terms of economic trends is that many governments across the world have made serious pushes for creating green jobs.  South Korea is the latest to join the fray, announcing this week a $32.7 billion program to create 1 million green jobs.

The spread of these kinds of initiatives is great news for aspiring ecopreneurs, as the market for green building, alternative energy, and other forms of green products and services becomes the ‘rising tide that lifts all ships’.  Well, at least the ships in the sustainable sector.

South Korea’s effort comes on the heels of calls for the creation of green economies and green job creation by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, Barack Obama, Al Gore,  and many others, including leaders from states and cities.

But what does this all mean?  How will this play out?  Here’s a scenario.  The South Korean government knows it has tremendous wind energy potential along its 600+ miles of eastern coastlines.   It creates tax and other incentives for wind energy development, which is part of its $32.7 billion dollar push, which leads aspiring ecopreneurs to start developing alternative energy companies to fill the need.  Utilities will also crash the party, and in the mean time create ‘green’ jobs, but there should be plenty to go around for both large companies and startups alike.  Bottom line:  great news for ecopreneurs and fans of ecopreneurs.

Ecopreneur and author Scott Cooney is hoping the green economy just becomes…. the economy.

Photo credit:  Brooke Anderson on Flickr Creative Commons