Business leaders call for more to be done to implement green skills programmes

New research from think tank Economist Impact and Iberdrola reveals over three-quarters of business leaders agree green skills will be the most important driver of the energy transition.

Moreover, almost two-thirds believe that green skills shortages could become a bottleneck and slow down the transition.

But only just over half of them are implementing or planning to implement such programmes for their workforce.

“Without skilled workers, the transition will not be delivered, and the benefits will not be realised,” says Ignacio Galán, Executive Chairman of Iberdrola.

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“As the world emerges from COP with a clear focus on phasing out fossil fuels, as well as tripling renewables in six years, every company in every sector is fully aware that change is coming fast.”

He adds that those who plan well “will lead and be at the forefront of the transition”, referencing activities by Iberdrola including helping aeronautics companies to take the lead in wind power, shipbuilders to diversify into offshore wind fabrication and oil and gas workers to switch to offshore renewables.

The survey involved 1,000 business leaders globally from the energy and utilities sector as well as the IT and technology, construction and infrastructure and transport and logistics sectors.

The data indicates that participants were overwhelmingly optimistic about the green transition and felt that it would create more and higher quality jobs than it would eliminate.

It also will require all workers to acquire green skills, both non-vocational, non-technical and of a more technical, role specific nature.

Among those in the former category the top three were identified as environmental awareness, innovation and creativity and problem solving, while the latter includes sustainability and disclosure reporting, environmental impact assessment and sustainability compliance.

In the energy sector, over one-third identified smart grid implementation as one of the most important green skills to enabling their organisation’s green transition.

Leading the transition

The survey found that two-thirds of the business leaders feel responsibility for leading the green transition lies with them over policymakers.

However, bridging emerging skills gaps will require coordination between the private sector and government and educational institutions.

The top three government policy priorities identified are support for businesses’ investment in up-skilling and re-skilling programmes, support for the establishment of green skills courses at educational institutions and adapting existing work and training programmes for the unemployed to increase the emphasis on green skills.

In addition, it is suggested that in the longer term governments will need to create an enabling environment that incentivises the greening of the economy more broadly with e.g. stricter standards, putting a price on emissions and removing subsidies for polluting industries, such as fossil fuels.