From offshore wind farms in Britain to floating solar power plants in Vietnam, about 13,000 renewable energy projects in nearly 50 countries are waiting for finance – and could create up to 10 million green jobs, consultancy EY-Parthenon said, Reuters reports.

In a report, EY said the projects offered $2 trillion in investment opportunities that would generate jobs locally and in supply chains and would help slash climate-heating emissions and secure a green recovery from the pandemic.

Serge Colle, EY’s global energy advisor, said the research showed there was “huge potential to accelerate private-sector renewables investment” with the right government policies and regulation around the world.

If the projects identified were implemented in the next three years, they would more than double the rate of global renewables deployment while delivering 22% of emissions reductions promised this decade by the 47 countries covered in the research, which include G20 nations, the report said.

That would amount to 9% of the emissions cuts needed by 2030 to keep planetary warming to the most ambitious global target of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, added the report commissioned by the European Climate Foundation (ECF).

The biggest potential benefits for workers are in China and the United States, where the projects could create about 2 million and 1.8 million jobs respectively.

India, Australia, Brazil, Britain and Canada also could generate hundreds of thousands of jobs each from boosting offshore and onshore wind, solar and hydropower capacity.

All this would partially compensate for the jobs lost during the pandemic.