Addressing global warming is more urgent than ever. With parts of Europe experiencing the warmest winter on record, there is no doubt action has to be taken to avert global catastrophe. More and more people are seeing the need to change habits, even their professions. Some are quitting their jobs to find ways to tackle climate change. Known as “climate quitters”, they are putting pressure on the dynamics of the job market and which companies get to recruit which talents. According to the International Labor Organization, more than 24 million green jobs could be created across the world by 2030.
According to Bloomberg news, many people are trying to find a job at a company with sustainable climate goals. A 2021 survey of 2,000 students across 29 business schools globally conducted by the Yale School of Management, found that 51% would accept lower salaries to work for an environmentally responsible company.
Government ministers in the UK have outlined a strategy for achieving net-zero by 2050, as reported by Euronews. The strategy aims to create 440,000 new jobs in green industries by 2030. In England, there could be up to 694,000 jobs in the low-carbon and renewable energy economy by 2030. The number could grow to 1.18 million by 2050.
Hiring in clean energy has pushed energy sector employment globally above pre-pandemic levels, data from the World Energy Employment Report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) reveals. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the IEA has said that clean energy has now “surpassed the 50% mark for its share of total energy employment” and has the biggest potential for job creation.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the energy crisis that followed have seen countries looking to “accelerate the growth of homegrown clean energy industries,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol told the WEF. “The regions that make this move will see huge growth in jobs.”
1. Job growth driven by clean energy
More than 65 million people were working in the energy sector in 2019, accounting for almost 2% of formal employment globally. Of the 1.3 million new energy jobs added between 2019 and 2021, “virtually all” of this growth is in clean energy jobs, the IEA estimates.
Major new manufacturing facilities, especially in solar technologies and electric vehicles, have come online since 2019 and are helping to drive this growth in clean energy jobs. The IEA defines clean energy workers as those in sectors including bioenergy supply, generating power from nuclear and renewable sources, electricity grids and storage, electric vehicles manufacturing and energy efficiency.
2. Net zero efforts generate clean energy jobs
Efforts to decarbonize the energy sector are driving employment trends, the IEA stated. By 2050, countries representing more than 70% of global emissions have committed to achieving targets on net-zero emissions – effectively removing greenhouse gas emissions.
Clean energy is critical to this transition by allowing the world to generate and use energy from renewable sources with no or low emissions of greenhouse gases, which accelerate climate change by warming the atmosphere. Most regions of the world already employ more than 50% of their energy workforce in clean energies, though the Middle East and Russia are “notable exceptions.”
The Asia-Pacific region provides more than half the world’s energy sector employment, according to the report. Access to lower-cost labor has helped countries here become clean energy manufacturing hubs, especially in solar technologies, electric vehicles and batteries.
3. Clean energy re-skilling
To reach net-zero emissions by 2050, the world will need to create 14 million new clean energy jobs by 2030 and move another 16 million workers to clean energy roles, the IEA estimates. Around 60% of these new jobs will need some degree of training beyond higher education levels.
Workers in coal and other fossil fuels have “many of the skills” needed for clean energy jobs and some companies are transferring their workers to low-carbon segments, the IEA says.The organization also notes that around 45% of energy workers are in highly-skilled jobs, compared to only a quarter of workers in the workforce globally.
The IEA hopes its inaugural World Energy Employment Report will provide the first worldwide benchmark for employment across energy industries.
