San Diego gets good marks in the latest assessment of the state's green economy. The nonpartisan group Next 10 is out with its annual Green Innovation Index.
The report finds California's clean technology sector is growing at a faster rate than the rest of the economy. The state's green friendly policies get a lot of credit for creating an environment that encourages innovation.
Next 10 founder Noel Perry said the state's core clean economy provides cutting edge products and services that move away from reliance on fossil fuels.
The study found that the clean economy sector grew by 20 percent over the past decade, to nearly 200,000 jobs. The rest of the economy only grew 2 percent over the same time.
The report singled out San Diego for several positive developments, including many zero-emission vehicles.
"There's a very high concentration of green emission vehicles in the San Diego region with over 3,600 registrations in 2012," Perry said. "And this is actually up by more than 52 percent from 2011."
Perry said the state's carbon emissions are going down and California is now the fourth least carbon-dependent economy in the nation.
Retiring more fossil fuel vehicles is the quickest way to shrink the state's carbon footprint even more, according to Perry.
Other San Diego region highlights in the report include:
- Fastest growth is in advanced materials jobs between January 2011 and 2012 (+84%).
- Third highest concentration of jobs in the clean economy (about 27,000 or 14% of the state total) and second highest concentration of clean transportation jobs.
