“You cost yourself a lot of jobs, a lot of factories closed, but you reduced the carbon footprint by 37 percent.”

In the United States, cutting carbon has been adding jobs. The Department of Energy's 2024 Energy and Employment Report found clean energy employment rose by 142,000 jobs in 2023, a 4.2% growth rate, twice the 2.0% rate for the rest of the energy sector and the economy overall. An analysis of the same DOE data found clean energy employment grew 3% from 2023 to 2024, while the total U.S. workforce grew 1%.

Clean energy supplied 56% of all new U.S. energy-sector jobs in 2023, and total energy employment grew 3%, outpacing overall U.S. employment growth by half. His remark was aimed at other countries' cuts, such as Europe's; the jobs data here are U.S. data.

The transition does cost some fossil-linked jobs: DOE counted a loss of 16,382 jobs (down 11.6%) in transportation of fuels in 2023. Those losses were far outweighed by clean energy gains the same year.

U.S. Department of Energy, 2024 Energy and Employment Report: "Clean energy employment increased by 142,000 jobs, accounting for more than half (56%) of new energy sector jobs."