Green career skilling: The road to sustainable climate economy roles - Economic Times
Green career skilling: The road to sustainable climate economy roles - The Economic Times
We spoke to Anshuman Bapa, Founder, Terra.do, a climate economy platform, says the climate economy will over the next 20 years mirror the growth and the transformation that the digital economy witnessed over the last few years. “Today, there are about 3-5 million globally working in the climate economy in jobs ranging from solar installers to ESG analysts. Our assessment is that the number would rise to over maybe 100-200 million people over the next 20 years.”
If that sounds like a humongous number, the reasoning is simple. Climate economy, according to Anshuman, could bring about transformation in some of the largest sectors such as energy, transportation and agriculture.
He lists 4 big areas of these emerging jobs:
Climate tech companies: Companies in this segment are doing innovative work in climate tech. The number of people working in this area directly could be small today — at about 50,000 — but it is fast growing and could go up to 100,000. Climate majors: These are large companies such as Tesla and Renew Power that have tens of thousands of employees. All of them may not directly be working on climate tech. But from sales managers to accountants, they are all working for the cause as part of the company. It is estimated there are 500,000 to 800,000 people in this area. Old-economy companies: Imagine companies like Unilever and Nestle, which need to build sustainable supply chains, packaging and such functions. That’s about a million people. Last and not the least, there is a growing belief that almost every job could emerge or have some components of a climate role. That’s a large number, though difficult to estimate.
A recent LinkedIn report that analysed green skills and jobs said while the rate of people adding green skills to their resumes was growing at 6% per year, the job demand with green skills requirements was growing at over 9%.
The biggest opportunity are:
ESG analysis: Be in accounting, reporting or analysis, the gap is significant here
Hardware engineering: People with mechanical engineering, electrical, chemical engineering backgrounds working on EV/renewables
Interestingly, many of these roles require some amount of experience. There is often a need for upskilling rather than skilling, with industries taking an active interest in driving that.
For freshers looking at climate careers, Bapa also recommends trying to assess roles in services or consulting organisations that are trying to help companies achieve their climate transformation goals.
With such a diverse need and scale, the government’s role is important here. There is already a skills council for green jobs, says Bapa. It has trained over 500,000 people in roles such as solar installers, wind turbine installers and EV chargers deployers.
- Climate and sustainability fluency for everyone across companies
- Functional skills in areas from ESG reporting to procurement roles reimaging supply chains to legal roles that need to assess regulators skills
Bulls Extend Record Run, Ignore Asia, Europe Bears
Indian equity gauges Monday soared to fresh highs after shrugging off concerns of tepid Chinese growth as robust earnings at HDFC Bank, which dwarfed Morgan Stanley in market value on the first day of trading as a merged entity, helped extend the recent bullish momentum paced by sustained overseas buying in domestic risk assets.
India Inc Likely to ‘Ad’ 20-25% to its H2 Spends this Yr
Advertising and consumer promotion expenditure is expected to surge a record 20-25% year-on-year in the second half of 2023, spurred by factors such as the Cricket World Cup, a rainy summer that has led companies to postpone ad spends, and the festive season, said executives.
Dunzo Eyes $20m More from Rel Retail
Dunzo is seeking at least $20 million (about ₹165 crore) more from Reliance Retail, its largest shareholder, after the cash-strapped quick commerce startup fell short of its target to raise $75 million by offering convertible notes, people aware of the discussions said.
Read More News on
ETPrime stories of the day
| 11 mins read | 11 mins read | 7 mins read |
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”