More signs today that the business of climate change is coming of age, and faster even than optimists expected.

HSBC, the big investment bank, just tallied up the revenues of listed companies operating in the “climate-change sector.” That includes companies that make low-carbon energy gear; energy-efficiency; and water and pollution management.

The upshot? The sector’s sales worldwide grew 75% last year to $530 billion, the bank reckons. That makes “climate change” a bigger business than wireless telecoms, capital markets, and aerospace and defense. The field is dominated by Germany, France, Japan and the U.S., which led the pack.

Interestingly, the climate sector does an even better job of creating employment than it does revenues. Climate sales were just 1.6% of the total revenue for the 2,400 listed companies in HSBC’s universe. But climate jobs represent 3% of the employment among those same 2,400 companies.

That either shows that clean-energy can be a motor of job creation (as proponents argue) or that clean energy is a labor-intensive sector and not a terribly efficient way to boost employment (as opponents point out).

So where to from[...]

[Published in GreenNews - Read the original article]