One of the best ways to encourage a faster green transition is by making sure people have the right skills for green jobs.
At the time of this writing, the United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP28 is taking place in the United Arab Emirates. World leaders are coming together for days of discussion on how nations can individually and collectively move towards a more sustainable future that relies less on harmful fossil fuels and more on clean, renewable energy.
A large part of that process, commonly referred to as the Transition to Green, is employment. The developing technologies that will help fight climate change need skilled workers to move it along, so it’s no wonder that experts predict job openings in the millions as countries embrace renewable energy.
According to LinkedIn, upskilling the current workforce to ensure there are enough skilled workers for the task at hand is key to the Green Transition’s success.
Follow the Green Skills Road
The number of green jobs being created has increased dramatically over the past few years. Workers have struggled to keep up, leading to a huge skills gap in the sector at the moment. But LinkedIn believes that green skills can create a path to a better future.
In its 2023 Global Green Skills Report, the company said: “At LinkedIn, we believe the most promising path forward is through a skills-based approach to greening the global workforce. By breaking down roles into the specific capabilities required to do them, we can develop talent strategies that recognize individuals for the capabilities they possess. And by thinking of climate-related jobs as collections of skills, specifically ‘green skills,’ we can expand the talent pool available to solve the climate crisis. Just as most roles now require digital skills, jobs ranging from procurement specialist to fleet manager to product designer to head chef can be performed in a more sustainable way if workers have green skills.”
The Skills Gap Opportunity
Despite the importance of green skills for a successful transition to clean energy, LinkedIn found that just 1 in 8 workers around the world has one or more green skills. “Put another way, seven in eight workers lack even a single green skill,” it said.
However, the number of jobs that require at least one green skill has grown significantly in just the past year alone. It’s no surprise, then, that the industry is seeing a skills gap. But LinkedIn suggested that this be looked at as an opportunity for the necessary upskilling and training across respective industries.
“The gargantuan challenge of drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions demands a whole-of-economy shift — across industries, roles and geographical regions,” LinkedIn said in its report. “With every challenge comes opportunity; if we take the right approach, we can leverage our efforts on behalf of the environment to catalyze growth throughout the global economy.”