US ‘green economy’ generates $1.3 trillion and employs millions, new study finds

The green economy generates $1.3 trillion in annual sales revenue in the United States while creating 9.5 million full-time jobs, climatologist Mark Maslin and researcher Lucien Georgeson said in their study published in the online journal Palgrave Communications.

To put the numbers from the study in context, the 9.5 million jobs represents over 4% of the working-age population in the United States, while $1.3 trillion is a little under 7% of annual GDP.

The researchers compiled data from subsections of the broader economy such as electric vehicles, waste management, and renewable energy.

Measuring the green economy’s impact in the United States is difficult because the government doesn’t collect official data.