Climate change can eliminate and create new jobs, study warns

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 25% of current jobs will be significantly affected by the net-zero greenhouse gas emissions transition.

“As the green transition unfolds, it’s important to keep in mind that the future of jobs will go far beyond the typical actions we know today and will eventually become an important part of all industries around the world,” said Fernando Bermúdez, Director of Corporate Relations at Manpowergroup.

To this scenario, the Manpowergroup study “Sustainable Business Transformation” adds that the global deficit of green skills is considerable, since Only 1 in 8 workers has more than one appropriate skill to adapt to these new jobs direct and adjacent necessary for the transition.

The contracting officers stated that were actively seeking green talent for positions of Manufacturing and Production (36%), Operations and Logistics (31%) y Information technology (30%).

One of the challenges of this transition is that the 94% of companies in the world say they do not have qualified personnel to achieve their environmental objectivesthis represents a challenge for employers and a great lost opportunity for workers.

Both the OECD and ManpowerGroup stress that retraining is key to dealing with the loss of human capital, especially in those industries that have high polluting emissions and will need to be transformed.

“The promise of a zero-emissions future in the energy, transport, agriculture, housing and infrastructure sectors will not be fulfilled if the gap is not closed, helping workers develop the skills they need for the years to come,” Bermúdez said.

However, employers point out that difficulties to implement this retraining are: Create appropriate training and updating programs (39%), understand which skills need to be updated (37%) e identify current skills that can be applied (36%).

Bermudez said both employers and workers are concerned about the accelerated pace of change and may not understand how current skills could translate into more profitable careers in growing emerging industries. companies, governments and academia must collaborate to create and foster a workforce highly qualified that it does not get lost in the midst of the ecological transition.