The Green Edge Take – February 2025
Our take on the crop of green reports from this months reading list.
The Green Edge Take, reflecting our views on the crop of sustainability-related publications that crossed our desk last month.
֎ Reports we feel are particularly worth a look.
Skills and Workforce Development
֎ UK Skills Revolution
Author/publisher: Lightcast
Publication Date: January 2025
No doubt Skills England will find this report of great interest. It highlights four sectors of strategic interest: digital, green, housebuilding and construction, and life sciences. The green part of the report (pages 10-11) shows the largely greening of roles rather them being wholly green (of the top 15 roles identified from their job postings dataset shows 4 are green, 11 are greening). We see this analysis as one to build on during 2025 as Skills England starts to fully function.
QS World Future Skills Index
Author/publisher: QS
Publication Date: 2025
There is a lot in this report which is both useful and challenging at the same time. On the useful side we have good context charts (e.g. the six-stage industrial innovation cycle – where clean tech is a key part of the 6th one, alongside AI and digital networks). Green skills are well covered (Top 5 green skills of growing importance), and those enabling electrification and net zero take the top five places of growing skills. The challenge comes when the analysis pulls together the various measures to show the UK being the second most prepared economy in 2024 and places Singapore ninth. The UK also gets its own section (pages 42-43)—worth a read too.
֎ Navigating the Green Transition: Building Green Skills for a Sustainable Workforce
Author/publisher: World Bank
Publication Date: October 2024
An excellent briefing paper containing core definitions and directing us to international pieces of work on green skills. Shows a set of priority reports with a longer reading list (a bit like The Green Edge). For those thinking of giving a lecture on green skills, this short document would make an excellent handout. What we particularly like (and we would expect this from the World Bank) is the international aspects, taking us away from the usual sets of countries.
Environmental Regulation and Green Skills: An Empirical Exploration
Author/publisher: Francesco Vona, Giovanni Marin, Davide Consoli, David Popp
Publication Date: May 2018
Uses O*NET and conducts an experiment across the USA looking at how regulations drive specific skills and employment levels. Conclusion: little difference on employment levels, but the skills do vary.
CreaTech Report
Author/publisher: Erskine Analysis
Publication Date: February 2025
Skills are an evident theme and message throughout this report in relation to development of the green and circular economy. This is a report which could well have been written by the Design Council as it recognises the importance of creative problem solving to achieving the net zero targets of 2030 and beyond.
Connecting skills: Using online job postings to unravel the demand for skills in the labour market
LMIC, January 2025
Link (online only)
Looks at the relationship between skills. We wonder if there would be value in extending the method used here to look at the relationships between net zero, sustainability, circular economy and green skills, which might help chart out pathways to develop roles, jobs and occupations.
London's Economy Today – Green Apprenticeships
Author/publisher: GLA Economics
Publication Date: January 2025
While green jobs and careers are widely promoted, we see here around 13% of apprenticeships in London are green (versus the 20% average in England). A great way of seeing the detail of what is happening across multiple roles, and how they are adjusting to support the entry of new, green-qualified candidates.
2025 Skills Forecast Technical Report
Author/publisher: Cedefop
Publication Date: December 2024
While the UK is no longer a part of Cedefop, this tool is a great way of exploring comparisons across multiple European countries at various levels. Hopefully a changed relationship with Europe will mean Skills England will rejoin the Cedefop programme.
BITC Green Skills Lab: Insights and Lessons
Author/publisher: Business in the Community (BITC)
Publication Date: January 2025
A useful set of case studies and part of the action learning programme driven through a series of workshops/events run on a quarterly basis. The toolkit is available also through the same link. An evaluation was undertaken of the approach by Northumbria University and is available here
Labour Market
֎ Employment Outlook and the Green Transition
Author/publisher: OECD
Publication Date: 2024
This is a report (a book, really) well worth reading in full, as it takes us through the net zero transition and the impact on the labour market and the skills fuelling key roles (about 20% of the workforce are in jobs that will likely expand due to the net zero transition). It also finds that while those people in higher skilled jobs in high-GHG businesses will be able to make the transition to green ones, people who hold relatively low skilled jobs will be most challenged and will need the greatest support.
Assessing Green Job Dynamics in the EU
Author/publisher: European Commission
Publication Date: July 2024
Covers three different methods to examine the changes in jobs and their greening: environmental goods and services; O*NET task data; and ESCO skills and competence data. Understanding how the labour market is, can and will adjust to a wave of change ranging from greening and automation is important. We also find a full listing of occupations using two of the methods, as well as the IMF Pollution Intensity Index. A useful reference document.
֎ Green Jobs and the Future of Work
Author/publisher: IMF
Publication Date: September 2024
This paper seeks to address four critical questions: how are green jobs distributed across countries, and how have they evolved recently? What is the expected impact of the green transition on the future of work for women and men? How can policymakers support a more inclusive and gender-neutral green transition? How can the supply of STEM workers and gender parity influence the effectiveness of green policies? If these questions are relevant to you, this paper is worth a read.
֎ Doing Green Things: Skills, Reallocation, and the Green Transition
Author/publisher: OECD
Publication Date: June 2023
Uses O*NET to examine both the greening of jobs and the transition from brown to green jobs, plus the overall impact of automation (largely AI driven) on the labour market. Also looks at the ease and directness of the transition into a green job from a brown or non-green one, finding that those jobs most impacted by automation are less-equipped to transition to green jobs. The whole nature of a just transition needs to take into account the wider set of waves of change impacting the labour market and jobs.
Clean Energy Jobs Employer Handbook
Author/publisher: Office for Clean Energy Jobs
Publication Date: January 2025
A handbook guiding employers through the various Government-funded schemes supporting new and current employees to acquire and develop skills. One thing which is very striking is the complexity of the UK skills system as different schemes for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Our conclusion: there must be a better way to run a single UK skills system.
Green Education, Training and Employment
Author/publisher: UK Parliament (POST)
Publication Date: February 2025
Highlights 11 core challenges and issues for managing the skills and workforce side of the net zero transition: workforce transition and skills gaps; housing/planning skills; skills for renewable energy integration and deployment; systems thinking; motivations for industries; understanding what works to develop green skills; integrating education pathways with employer goals; embedding climate change and sustainability into the curriculum; ensuring sustainability is embedded across the higher education landscape; improving population energy literacy to enhance energy conservation actions; and the role of sustainability volunteering. We see this list as important as we are all seeking to improve the current skills system’s ability to progress the net zero transition, and we need an agreed list of areas where we need to focus and change.
From Polluting to Green Jobs: A Seamless Transition in the U.S.?
Author/publisher: IMF
Publication Date: July 2022
A thoughtful paper which explores the transition of workers in polluting to green industries at the household level using O*NET data. The feature of the analysis which really caught our eye was the use of the Clean Air Act (enacted in the USA in 1963) to examine the transition that happened at the time. Their conclusion: workers made the shift while employment remained at much the same level.
Making the European Green Deal Work for People
Author/publisher: World Bank
Publication Date: 2024
A helpful external view of the European Green Transition and the support policies that focus on enabling, adapting and mitigating individuals. We could say that just transition is a key part of this report as it particular highlights the support those individuals potentially most impacted by the transition.
Measuring Green Jobs: A New Database for Latin America
Author/publisher: World Bank
Publication Date: June 2024
An important paper in that it extends a method and presents data for Latin America and many other countries (there a series of global green jobs maps). Two things stand out for us: the skills divides and exclusion of low skilled workers from green roles; and (in Appendix A1) we find a lengthy list of countries showing the share of green jobs by category. There would appear to be a few anomalous entries here with the Russian Federation having such a higher proportion of green jobs.
֎ Why Look at Tasks When Designing Skills Policy for the Green Transition?
Author/publisher: World Bank
Publication Date: April 2024
Takes O*NET data and extends and build on it, and then tests the approach by applying it to Indonesia. Shows the value of task-based data both in accurately defining green occupations and showing the variations in those occupations.
Labour Markets and the Green Transition
Author/publisher: European Union
Publication Date: 2021
Makes the case for using task-based datasets to explore the greening of occupations, again using O*NET data to illustrate the point. We would like to see Skills England with the Office for Clean Energy Jobs pick-up the value of having task-based data for the whole of the UK, and bring into being a UK version of O*NET.
Post-School Education and Skills Reform: Consultation on Legislation
Author/publisher: Scottish Government
Publication Date: January 2025
This analysis is of interest to anyone in England seeking to understand what changes might be emerging in Scotland. We also see this as an input into the development of the thinking of Skills England and how it might seek to improve post-school education and skills integration and management.
Transforming the Construction Industry: 2023 ITB Review
Author/publisher: Mark Farmer, Industry Training Board (ITB)
Publication Date: January 2025
Many of the plans to deliver the net zero transition are dependent upon having a vibrant and highly qualified construction workforce This review looks at two core bodies—the Construction ITB and the Engineering and Construction ITB—both of which are statutory and levy-funded bodies. The most attention-grabbing recommendation is the merger of the two bodies (partially accepted). The Government has responded through the Department for Education who have tackled the 63 recommendations across 17 findings (35 accepted; 25 accepted in part; and 3 decided to adopt a different approach). The DfE response can be accessed here. Given their significance to net zero, we will be monitoring the progress of delivering the recommendations.
֎ Green Skills Provision Report 2024 – West of England LSIP
Author/publisher: West of England Combined Authority
Publication Date: 2024
A really helpful approach to categorising green courses and provision into three categories: introductory, intermediate, and in-depth. This is important to provide guidance to people who do not have prior knowledge and are not clear about how many in education classify their courses. The three categories used here fit well with the analysis of net zero reskilling and upskilling needs in the UK we highlighted last month. We suggest a read of this guide alongside Green Skills Provision Report 2024 for the West of England.
SME Skills Horizon 2025
Author/publisher: Specsavers
Publication Date: 2025
A survey of 1,500 SMEs which finds green skills are recognised as the highest “sector” growth area. It would be helpful if the data used here were to be drilled down a few levels to explore in more detail how to overcome barriers to increase skills development.
Addressing Common Myths around Renewable Power
Author/publisher: Clean Energy Canada
Publication Date: October 2024
This comes from a great organisation promoting and supporting green careers in Canada. Green jobs and employment are covered under Myth #9 (“There are not enough good green jobs to provide a viable alternative career paths”). It provides a good few pages (pages 56-58) and shows the growing green economy and employment. Incidentally, the website splits green careers into seven sectors: sustainable food, circular economy, green infrastructure, sustainable mobility, clean energy, impact investing, and ecosystem restoration.
Circle Economy Impact Report 2024
Author/publisher: Circle Economy
Publication Date: February 2025
We find reports like this are a useful way of quickly seeing the rate of progress and the levels of engagement of businesses moving towards circularity. We also see the wider work of the Circle Economy in making progress visible e.g. the C40 report on green jobs across 16 sectors in the world’s largest cities Global Good Green Jobs in C40 Cities (June 2024).
Choosing Our Future - Education for Climate Action
Author/publisher: The World
Publication Date: August 2024
A powerful and well-illustrated report, showing the importance of education (schools) on the development of appropriate actions for climate change. Given the rate of the net zero transition, education is a setting which has huge potential to help students and those entering the workforce and society at speed and with success. It also (quite rightly) shows the range of green skills and jobs in all corners of the economy.
Degree Apprenticeships in England: Stakeholder Experiences
Author/publisher: Edge Foundation
Publication Date: January 2025
Degree apprenticeships have been around for 10 years, and have the potential to be an important part of developing green skills. It is unclear how the apprenticeship levy will be invested in the coming years, and so it is important to learn about the value of what has been achieved over the last decade.
Clean Industrial Deal - Role of Technical Education
Author/publisher: EuropeOn & GCP Europe
Publication Date: February 2025
Two powerful bodies and voices across Europe for electrical contracting and building maintenance and repair making the case for labour and skills to be included in the Clean Industrial Deal. Why? Significant labour and skill shortages in most European countries. We include this brief note here as the two sectors are made up of numerous small businesses—difficult to engage and corral, but nonetheless a key part of the net zero transition skills infrastructure and capability. There might well be lessons to learn from Europe here in the UK.
Transition Away from Coal: Vulnerabilities and Opportunities
Author/publisher: The World Bank
Publication Date: April 2023
Understanding the direct and potentially negative impacts of the net zero transition is very important, because how we manage people displaced (dispossessed) from work and from their community is a visible break on the whole process. Here we see a community in Poland dependent on coal as the focus, but this could just as well be the Grangemouth community dependent on the local oil refinery. We have also seen in the UK the time it takes for a community to make the transition from previous single domination e.g. Consett in County Durham has taken 40 years to “recover” from the loss of the local steel works.
Characterizing Green and Carbon-intensive Employment in India
Author/publisher: World Bank
Publication Date: September 2024
Adopts the definition of green jobs from the Skills Council for Green Jobs in India, and looks at the net zero transition and its impact on the labour market. From a methodology point of view, the construction of the database is interesting and highlights the importance of having a sound occupational information system (like O*NET).
Skills Empower Workers in the AI Revolution
Author/publisher: Cedefop
Publication Date: 2025
Displacement, automation and job re-designing are the big themes here as the application of AI moves across more and more sectors and occupations. It would be good to see this survey also including the greening of the workforce to see how these two drivers of work change are interacting.
The New Politics of AI: Why Fast Technological Change Requires Bold Policy Targets
Author/publisher: Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
Publication Date: February 2025
Drawing on O*NET data and analyses (again), this report proposes linking AI to key policy areas (missions). We really are reaching the point where analyses like this need to be linked to the greening of work driven by the net zero transition, showing how green jobs are being transformed by AI and what capacity is being created to handle the rapidly growing volume of green work.
GPTs are GPTs: Labor Market Impact of Large Language Models (LLMs)
Author/publisher: Science (OpenAI & University of Pennsylvania)
Publication Date: June 2024
Based on a working paper (August 2023) we see the near-all-pervasive impact of LLMs across most occupations (only 34 record zero impact from LLMs). Our interest here is the crossover between AI and the greening of work (by content, by purpose change), and we think there is a direct relationship as large parts of the greening of work are AI interdependent.
The Impact of AI on Work and Occupations
Author/publisher: Goldman Sachs
Publication Date: March 2023
An important and informative paper, serving at one level as an AI explainer and showing the value of task and competence data from the USA (O*NET) and Europe (ESCO) in understanding the shifting nature of work and occupations. We are interested in the AI impact on work and jobs as it is running alongside the transition to net zero. There is a clear interplay between the two as AI is proving to have a significant complementary impact on architecture and engineering. Side point: a chart is included here looking at the occupation displacement and creation since 1940 and concluding that the net effect is positive.
A Conceptual Framework for Workforce Skills for Industry 5.0
Author/publisher: Journal of Innovation Management
Publication Date: July 2024
Brings together digital and green skills developments under the Industry 5.0 stage of development We see this a useful step as the sole focus on green tends to blind our understanding of what is happening to tasks in the workplace. Significant part of the transition to net zero will only be made possible by a series of eco-digital skills.
Preparing for the Future of Work: Identification of Future Skills
Author/publisher: Journal of Business Economics
Publication Date: July 2023
A future skills viewing study which identifies 33 future skills for manufacturing, and in Table 1 (pages 486-487) we find green skills caught under the heading “sustainable and resource friendly technologies”. Uses a well-worn approach using job adverts and their contents. Our interest here is around combining the roadmaps (for sectors, and for businesses) for net zero with a way of pulling out key elements to help steer the development of future education and training programmes.
Mapping Career Causeways: User Guide
Author/publisher: Nesta
Publication Date: 2024
A useful piece of work on transition matrices which shows how people can make job and career changes. We see that thought pursued against the backdrop of the impact of AI upon an occupation. We have seen this approach before by Lightcast, using it for those occupations negatively impacted by the net zero transition. We have undertaken similar work in Europe, and see the upskilling and reskilling mapping to ensure employment resilience as being a part of the just transition for current and future workers.
Five Factors Impacting the Public Sector Skills Landscape
Author/publisher: TrainingZone & The Open University
Publication Date: January 2025
Good to see a report on the public sector skills landscape. There is a golden opportunity for the public sector to collaborate on skills, jointly pool scarce resources to provide some capacity to improve and develop, and potentially to redefine roles in support of attracting new recruits and filling various skills gaps and shortages. At the same time a public sector-wide approach to skills can also help shape and drive markets (for green skills and other), and also help to access currently excluded work entrants (i.e. those classified at ‘NEETS’, and those receiving disability benefits and seeking work). While public sector collaboration can be supported centrally, the real progress and impact would be best focused locally.
Devolution and Regional Development
Greater Manchester 5 Year Environment Plan (2025-2030)
Author/publisher: Greater Manchester Combined Authority
Publication Date: 2025
A well-structured plan which covers eight areas: energy infrastructure, buildings, transport, natural environment, circular economy, resilience, health and well-being (including air quality), and the economy. Interweaved throughout these eight areas is a high awareness and importance of skills which is positioned as being key enabler. We see this as a model document in many ways and one which would be great to see across all combined authorities.
Powering Local Climate Action: UK100 Annual Review 2024
Author/publisher: UK100
Publication Date: December 2024
UK100 is an important network of 117 local authorities working together to manage their own climate action plans, and their collective impact is summarised here. Worth reading alongside the work of Climate Emergency UK and their action scorecards.
Green Skills and Circular Economy Workplan 2024-2025
Author/publisher: Hackney Council (SEG Scrutiny Commission)
Publication Date: September 2024
Always useful to look at what is happening in detail at local authority level around green skills, and what practical actions are being taken. It would be useful to have these details brought together for the whole of London, and to see what picture is emerging borough by borough.
Isle of Man Retrofit and Low-Carbon Skills Analysis
Author/publisher: Gemserv
Publication Date: February 2022
One of many detailed local studies of retrofit skills. It would be good to see them brought together into one national statement of retrofit skills needs, supply issues and education and training capacity requirements. Perhaps a role for Gemserv as we see they have done a number of these local studies?
Wales Economic and Fiscal Report 2024
Author/publisher: Welsh Government
Publication Date: December 2024
Deep within this report we find Figure 30 which charts the employment level in low carbon and renewable energy economy in Wales (2015-2022), using LCREE data from the ONS. It is a shame that a wider definition is not used to show the potential range of green employment levels.
Wales Net Zero 2035: Enabling the Transition
Author/publisher: Wales Net Zero 2035 Group
Publication Date: 2024
A significant body of work here across multiple reports. The one to look for is What could education, jobs and work look like across Wales in 2035? This specific report works across all levels and forms of education with a clear roadmap and key actions. It would be good to see this built upon for the whole of the UK, ending up with a coherent, common framework. This would at least help businesses operating across the whole of the UK, and bring the various Government departments together behind a single net zero plan.
Towards a UK Trade Strategy
Author/publisher: Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR)
Publication Date: January 2025
Within the emerging UK industrial strategy we find eight key sectors amongst which clean energy industries are identified. In this report, this is seen as one sector upon which a trade strategy can be built. We see this as important piece of work as the employment projections we have seen for the whole net zero transition (including nature and the move to the circular economy) tends to leave out those generated by exports. This line of work needs developing further.
A Competitiveness Compass for the EU
Author/publisher: European Commission
Publication Date: January 2025
There is much talk about growth in the UK, and so this document will be of interest as it summarises the EU’s response around 3 imperatives (of which decarbonisation and competitiveness is one) supported by 5 enablers (of which skills and quality jobs is one). Behind the decarbonisation and competitiveness imperative there are 15 key actions, ranging from plans and actions to reviews and packages. It is interesting to note that skills portability is highlighted, which should be read as the skills passport we are seeing promoted in the UK.
Spotlight on Spinouts 2024
Author/publisher: Beauhurst, Royal Academy of Engineering
Publication Date: April 2024
Shows the importance of UK academic spinouts to clean tech development, which rank as 5th in the dominant sectors. Also shows an increase from 2023 (up from 150 to 162) but on a slowing rate of growth. It is acknowledged that while much of the net zero transition can be achieved using current, known technology, there is still a gap requiring new knowledge and new technologies. It would be useful to know how these 162 businesses developed once fully spun out from the supportive environment of university incubators and access to grants.
Stronger Together: Challenges of Devolved Regional Economic Development
Author/publisher: HEPI (Higher Education Policy Institute), Alistair Lomax
Publication Date: 2024
Looks at 6 pan-regional partnerships bringing together universities with local stakeholders to drive economic and wider development. We see this as an important development that would gain from having related Catapults included. Together, they have an important role in developing clean tech technologies and solutions, as well as providing a pipeline for the future engineers and scientists.
Transfer of Funding Powers for New Technical Qualifications: Government Response
Author/publisher: UK Department for Education
Publication Date: January 2025
All part of the devolution drive across England, and the Government supports the devolution of funding at the core of this consultation. It will be interesting to see how this operates in practice and potentially impacts green qualifications.
Pot Pourri
֎ United Kingdom’s 2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)
Author/publisher: UK Government
Publication Date: January 2025
An important document which gives clarity as to the ambitions of the UK Government. Here we see the just transition (page 24) getting raised along with Skills England, Energy Skills Passport, and Education and Skills (page 48). It’s great to see the core role of Students Organising for Sustainability UK (SOS-UK) being mentioned too as regards education and sustainability. This document impacts the whole net zero transition in the UK across the next ten years.
Equity and Just Transition Commitments in South Africa
Author/publisher: SouthSouthNorth (SSN), Net Zero Tracker (NZT)
Publication Date: January 2025
A country that relies on coal and experiences extensive poverty and inequality is tackling net zero with a strong commitment to making it a just transition. Into the plans and actions for investment and implementation, skills are central. Here we see this being examined through what has been done in the public sector and across several major sectors (finance, mining, fossil fuels, logistics, automation and a group of multi-nationals). We are highlighting this report as we hold to a core working assumption: a successful net zero transition must be based on just transition principles and values, and so the more we can learn from how others are tackling this is important. We know the South Africans have learnt from the work undertaken in Scotland.
Industrial Strategy Sector Mapping Guide V1
The Data City, January 2025.
Link (via online subscription)
Covers the eight growth sectors identified by the UK Government: advanced manufacturing, clean energy industries, creative industries, defence, life sciences, digital and technology, professional and business services, financial services. We see the development of more accurate, up-to-date monitoring of a sectors growth is key to managing the transition towards net zero.
The Shetland Way: Community and Climate Crisis on my Father’s Islands
Marianne Brown, Borough Press, January 2025.
Link (book)
We have spoken and written about the ‘just transition’ and this book captures a number of the core issues at a local, community level. A well-crafted book, showing how the visible aspects of the transition can be more emotive than the unseen impact of fossil fuels.
2025 Global 100: World's Most Sustainable Companies
Author/publisher: Corporate Knights
Publication Date: January 22, 2025
Operating since 2002, Corporate Knights, have been studying the sustainability of major corporations, seeking to rank them across a wide range of factors and metrics. The most recent listing of 100 businesses show they are widespread across Europe (47), North America (25), Asia (including Australis and New Zealand) (23) and the rest of the world (5). The UK has eight corporations listed: United Utilities, Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure, Land Securities Group, Beazley, Unilever, BT Group, Anglo American, and the Nat West Group. Our interest is simple: green jobs and skills are dependent on corporations becoming sustainable in their operations, and how they deliver their products and services. An interesting ranking.
Your Life is Manufactured: How we make things, why it matters and how we can do it better
Tim Minshall, Faber, February 2025.
Link (book)
A great read. To really understand the net zero transition of manufacturing businesses we need to understand manufacturing, how it has developed and how it needs to adapt. The book seeks to address two core questions: why is our modern manufacturing world so fragile and so damaging to the planet; and what can be done to make it less fragile and damaging. Spoiler alert: manufacturing is part of the solution! There is an almost parallel book, The Material Advantage (November 2024) by Bernard Bulkin which really helps in understanding materials transformation and sustainability.
We Mean Business Coalition Annual Report 2023
Author/publisher: We Mean Business Coalition
Publication Date: 2023
Major coalition of businesses operating across the world through a network of 80+ partners. Drives both advocacy and action across energy, transport, built environment, industry, and land and nature. We have to wonder if the funding from the founders will continue after the recent political changes in the USA.
National Climate Resilience Assessments
IEA, January 2025.
Link (online only)
Examines five countries using a standardised approach: Iraq, Chile, Egypt, Oman, and Morocco. Our interest here is simple, while we tend to focus on the net zero transition, it is important to note that adaptation investment will be necessary along with other changes.
BBC Net Zero Transition Plan 2024
Publisher: BBC
Date: 2024
Shows how the net zero transition is central to the development of the BBC and recognises the skills and competence issues (pages 60-61). It will be useful to track this plan and how it works over the coming years, and the impact on the roles within the BBC and its suppliers.
Energy
General
Electrifying Industry and Distribution Networks: Considerations for Policymakers
Author/publisher: Aldersgate Group
Publication Date: February 2025
While this briefing shows the looming constraints in the electricity supply, demand and distribution network, for us it also raises the need for manpower issues which need to be deployed to remove the constraints. There is also a link the development of the UK growth strategy as unconstrained clean energy supply is critical for the growth of the IT sector (data centres etc.). No doubt the Office for Clean Energy Jobs is translating the electricity constraints into a skills and workforce plan for the next 25 years.
Advancing Clean Energy Demonstration Projects
Author/publisher: International Energy Agency (IEA)
Publication Date: 2024
Covers hydrogen and hydrogen fuels, power generation and storage, industry, transport, and carbon dioxide management alongside the various Government funding schemes. Our interest here is in keeping a track of technologies that are going to move beyond demonstration status and require skills to support scale-up and full application.
UK Energy Transition Outlook 2025
Author/publisher: DNV
Publication Date: January 2025
For those looking for an independent view of the whole energy transition for the UK, here’s one with great charts and illustrations. It will be good to compare what is said here and what we learn from the Climate Change Committee and its next report.
Global Cleantech 100: Energy & Power Report 2025
Author/publisher: Cleantech Group
Publication Date: January 2025
Always interesting to see which sub-segments of energy and power are attracting investment: here we see six businesses (of 39) focused on hydrogen—none of which come from the UK. A number of other sectors covered here are also worth a look.
Geothermal
The role of flexible geothermal power in decarbonized electricity systems
Nature Energy, 10, January 2025.
Link (online subscription)
We find this article of interest in two ways: first, geothermal has the potential to provide both base load and flexible energy; and second, exploring and developing geothermal draws upon skills that are at the core of the geoscience capabilities that underpin oil and gas exploration and extraction. We have been tracking one company in this area, Fervo Energy which has been very successful in winning backing for this development.
Hydrogen
Blue Hydrogen: A False Hope for Steel Decarbonisation
Publisher: IEEFA
Date: January 2025
It’s no real surprise that blue hydrogen—hydrogen created from fossil fuels with Carbon Capture and Storage—is not a complete solution. Here we have company-by-company examination which is helpful for anyone trying to track the progress with technologies within the critical steel sector.
Nuclear
Nuclear Power in the Midlands: Economic Growth Opportunity
Publisher: Midlands Engine
Date: February 2025
A useful local industrial/cluster strategy which fully recognises skills into two ways: individual skills and those that a particular business can bring because of its core technology. It makes the case for having a supportive series of businesses skilled in process control and automation (938 businesses), welding (1,246), and forging (481) that can support the nuclear industry; businesses that are Fit 4 Nuclear.
National Policy Statement for Nuclear Energy (EN-7)
Publisher: UK Government (DESNZ)
Date: February 2025
An important statement of policy. We find skills weaved into the document throughout. Given the rise of SMRs and AMRs, here is an area we need to track and understand further as regards the wider skills and jobs implications and opportunities. If this is of interest, the Government’s response and new consultation is available here.
Nuclear Hydrogen Cogeneration Feasibility Study
Publisher: Frazer-Nash Consultancy, Nuclear AMRC
Date: October 2022
Increasingly we are seeing a convergence in energy between different sources creating means of conversion and storage. Here we see hydrogen and nuclear being paired. The demonstration project is seem as one way of capturing and developing the skills to scale-up and apply more widely.
Solar
Sunny Day Savings: Government Support for Solar Panels
Publisher: Resolution Foundation
Date: February 2025
The chart in this briefing which caught our eye was the huge growth in the importance of solar panels over the next five years (jumping from 15-16GW to 46-47GW)—solar here being industrial scale installation to the domestic roofs. This scale of growth will require a major increase in the levels of education and training for those entering and working on solar.
SolarPower Europe Operation & Maintenance Best Practice Guidelines
Publisher: SolarPower Europe
Date: February 2025
For those planning to build a course covering the operations and maintenance of a solar farm, an exhaustive and detailed report. What would be fascinating is to drop this document into an AI analytical tool to extract the skills, knowledge, competences, etc. required and how best these are arranged for specific jobs, and the pathways for entry into them.
Heat and Retrofit
Total Cost of Ownership of Heat Pumps: The Case of Great Britain
Author/publisher: Rosenow et al., iScience
Publication Date: January 2025
For those looking for evidence that heat pumps are the most appropriate technology for house and wider buildings. Includes recommendations as to how best to reflect the full costs of heating.
Decarbonizing Heat: The Impact of Heat Pumps and a Time-of-Use Tariff (USA)
Author/publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Publication Date: October 2024
Heat pumps have been proposed as the leading technology in the electrification of domestic heat and therefore could play a crucial part in the transition to low-carbon energy systems. However, there is very little causal evidence of the impact of heat pumps on energy demand and the impact of marginal prices to help optimise energy demand with heat pumps. The analysis leverages a staggered roll-out of heat pumps from Octopus Energy Group to show that: (1) heat pumps have a large impact on energy demand, on average causing a 90% reduction in home gas use and a 61% increase in home electricity use–overall, households reduced total energy demand by 40% and carbon dioxide emissions by 36% in 2024 (with an average of 68% emissions savings over the lifetime of the heat pump); (2) a time-of-use tariff designed for heat pumps can provide large demand flexibility benefits, halving electricity consumption during the evening peak to help balance the grid, and that load shifting is possible on the coldest days and from all building types in our sample; (3) the marginal value of public funds of the current UK heat pump subsidy is £1.24 (for every £1 spent by the Government). The report concludes heat pumps can meaningfully decarbonise heat and subsidies to encourage heat pumps can be welfare-enhancing. All part of the detailed information required to help convince all of the true value of heat pumps.
Evaluation of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme: Interim Report (2024)
Publisher: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)
Date: July 2024
Our interest in this evaluation of the BUS scheme is the piece that covers installers and their characteristics, and how this gives those interesting in the skilling for retrofitting, and how to design training interventions to support SMEs.
Historic Environment Staff Resources in Local Authorities
Publisher: Historic England
Date: 2023
While the bulk of buildings are not in conservation areas, nor have listed status, many do. About 20% of the housing stock is pre-1918 and there are 400,000 listed properties alongside 10,000 conservation areas containing multiple homes. The skills of local authorities are critical in managing the retrofitting needs of historic buildings, and this report covers the key staff undertaking this work, and conducts an annual survey.
Creating Good Local Retrofit Jobs
Publisher: Ashden, MCS Foundation
Date: January 2025
This is a gem of a report, shining light on the potential for retrofitting businesses to also see their roles in training people for retrofitting roles and careers. It would be good to see this report built on by examining the potential of franchising successful Works and Training Organisations (WATO) to boost their impact across the UK. This report draws from interviews of WATO founders and so the leads are there for the next report.
Ecofurb Home Retrofit Trends Index 2025
Publisher: Ecofurb
Date: January 2025
An interesting survey of 1,287 homeowners who identify skills as a major barrier to installing heat pumps and other retrofit technology (22% of the survey respondents). This is after the financial barriers though. Skills are directly linked to quality assurance concerns.
Retrofitting Hard-to-Treat Social Housing
Publisher: Midlands Net Zero Hub
Date: January 2025
We are now seeing reports taking us from the general retrofitting challenges into detailed explorations of different housing types. Here we see hard-to-treat social housing (which the authors estimate as being 20-30% of the local social housing stock). While skills are not the focus of the report, we see skills issues in evidence here.
Net Zero and the UK Historic Building Stock
Publisher: POST (Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology)
Date: February 2025
An excellent briefing from POST which raises multiple questions about the issues linked to retrofitting older houses and buildings. We can see the use of sophisticated models being able to handle the huge variety of properties and to derive retrofitting solutions, plans, and their skills requirements. We suggest a look at Thermondo in Germany and related work in the UK – both are examples of AI enabling the retrofitting of buildings at scale. The Local Area Retrofit Accelerator (LARA) is also worth a squint.
A Blueprint for Warmer Homes: How to Deliver a Retrofit Revolution
Publisher: New Economics Foundation (NEF)
Date: January 2025
A good report—one chart (Figure 5) which captures the likely investment required in retrofit skills over the next 10-15 years is particularly useful. There’s also a short list of the main schemes put in place to support retrofit skills development. Hopefully, this will feed into both Central and Local Government planning for retrofitting during 2025 and be dovetailed with the huge potential housing associations offer.
֎ Achieving Zero-Carbon Buildings: Electric, Efficient and Flexible
Publisher: Energy Transitions Commission (ETC)
Date: February 2025
For those looking for an exhaustive and thorough text on both retrofitting homes and commercial buildings. Thankfully also covers cooling, which is often left out of retrofitting talk. We could see this report being used in college or distance-learning courses.
Retrofitting Housing: Translating Net-Zero Commitments into Actions
Publisher: University of Manchester
Date: December 2022
A case study of Manchester, identifying skills as a barrier to implementation and delivery (not surprising).
Agriculture and Land Use
Climate Resilience: Horizon Scanning for Future UK Crops
Publisher: UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Tyndall Centre
Date: January 2025
Planning for a changing climate is critical for agriculture. Here we see a group of crops potentially being dropped (onions, strawberries, oats, wheat), with others being adopted (soy, chickpeas, grapes). A shift in traditional crops is one thing but introducing lesser-known ones which are also potentially in lesser demand means careful planning along the whole food supply chain. Alongside this is a skills shift, as new crops can demand new skills and knowledge.
UK Government Land Use Consultation
Publisher: DEFRA
Date: January 2025
How we make the best use of land over the next 50-100 years is a key question and task. Here we see DEFRA seeking the views of all those involved in land management. Skills get a mention (page 34, Question 21). Even when agreement has been reached on how best to use land, there are then the skills needed to implement the changes and then use the land for its different outputs: for example, changing low grade agriculture land to forestry or nature restoration and preservation, and for energy generation (solar farms, biomass for energy). Managing the new configuration of land will bring challenges to farmers and estate managers, calling for new and enhanced skills.
Carbon Farming’s Contribution to CAP Climate Objectives
Publisher: European Commission
Date: June 2024
The decisions farmers are having to take as regards future crops, future income streams and so on are complex and are coming thicker and faster. One option for all farmers is carbon farming from soil to biomass and forestry. This brings a need for new knowledge and skills for farmers and their advisors (specialists, and the agriculture wholesalers).
Cement
Digitalization: The Pathway to Net Zero
Publisher: Carbon Re
Date: April 2024
Shows the direct impact of applying AI to an existing automated system and greatly improving both energy efficiency through greater process control (reduced process variance). Also picks up on the need to upskill engineers to ensure they can capture the power of AI to existing processes and to operate the process. This is a development which has been in the making for some time as we remember visiting a Blue Circle cement works in Kent to explore their use of fuzzy logic.
Circular Economy
France's Repairability Index for Electronics Products
Publisher: One Planet Network
Date: February 2023
The repair index was adopted in France in 2019 and provides a clear rating scale (index) for a group of electronics products, showing consumers the degree of repairability (hard to easy). The net result of this has been a shift of consumer behaviour towards purchasing products with high levels of repairability. In turn this has driven the need for a repair infrastructure and skills, which is growing for domestic appliances and electronic goods.
Repair, Reuse, Reform: Re-use and Repair Manifesto
Publisher: SUEZ
Date: January 2025
A practical set of proposals (seven in all) in which skills feature strongly, drawing on the significant work of the CIWM as part of the Green Jobs Delivery Group’s sector programme. There are huge returns from relatively small levels of investment, but what we have not seen as yet is a full view of the economics of a circular economy with high levels of repair and reuse. Perhaps a study of the impact of the French repair index system introduced in 2019 might tell us the real impact of circularity beyond the environmental gains.
Powering the Future: Battery Supply Chains and Circularity
Publisher: World Economic Forum (WEF), RMI, Global Battery Alliance
Date: January 2025
With the growth of batteries, especially in EVs, we will see major battery re-use and re-cycling set of businesses being established. This is explored here along with the workforce implications and needs.
The Rise of Community Repair
Publisher: Open Repair Alliance
Date: October 2024
Provides a great overview and detail of the Repair Café community and its impact. Raises for us a range of skills issues based on the domestic appliances being repaired (or not so)—perhaps this could drive a curriculum for a repair qualification?
Waste Wars: Dirty deals, international rivalries and the scandalous afterlife of rubbish
Alexander Clapp, John Murray Press, February 2025.
There is a simple message for us in this excellent book: plastics are not the future, and they can’t really be recycled effectively. If we hold this thought for a minute, what does the net zero transition really mean for the plastics processing industry? What is the roadmap for the myriads of small processing businesses operating a few moulding machines? Will polymer science come the rescue and develop a truly multi-re-cyclable material? We shall see.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Impact Assessment
Publisher: DEFRA
Date: January 2021
We have gone back to this document as we are seeing statements from businesses (e.g. the British Retail Consortium) about the costs (“sustainability taxes”) of the forthcoming extended producer responsibility scheme, where businesses pay for household packaging they produce and which consumers must dispose of. On the positive side, DEFRA is stating that 21,000 (new) jobs will be created and £10bn will be invested over the next decade. This is an area we will track as it is a potential growth area and a way the circular economy will become more evident.
Construction and the Built Environment
Building Greener Cities: Green Job Opportunities in Clean Construction (London)
Publisher: C40 Cities, Buro Happold, New Economics Foundation
Date: January 2025
The whole shift towards clean construction will generate more jobs than is currently required with high carbon approaches and require additional and new skills, and if this report is of interest it is worth looking at the C40 and ARUP report on bio-based construction (August 2024) which drills into the skills in more detail (especially Table 1). By the way, bio-based construction means using timber and in particular, cross-laminated timber. Both reports raise the need for re-casting construction education and training.
Close to Home: Building Safer Housing in a Changing Climate (Canada)
Publisher: Canadian Climate Institute
Date: February 2025
Just as in the UK there is a big drive in Canada to boost the numbers of new homes being built every year to both tackle high costs and shortage of supply. What we see here is there are limitations on the new supply side if homes are built in the wrong place and in the wrong way. Again, a message for the UK here too.
Food
Just in Case: Narrowing the UK Civil Food Resilience Gap
Publisher: National Preparedness Commission
Date: February 2025
An exhaustive report on a key element of climate change: the resilience and security of whole food supply chain along with the 4 million jobs involved (excluding logistics). There is a clear need to think through the whole supply chain, the land use implications, and employment aspects of the food industry from a climate change and net zero transition points of view, and this piece of work is a great start. Shifting the resilience dial for the UK food industry will take time, and involves a change in skills.
Nature and the Environment
Green Space Skills Hub: Sector Perception Report
Publisher: Groundwork London
Date: 2024
There is a lot of nature in urban areas, and this one is focused on London, showing the potential and scale of what is possible and the careers on offer.
Transport
Change You Can Board: Delivering Better, Greener Buses
Publisher: IPPR North
Date: January 2025
We are interested in this piece of work for two main reasons: first, the development of attractive, fast, efficient and frequent urban transport, meaning land use can change and emissions reduced; and second, the switch to e-buses and how the collective approach can accelerate this process. These in turn drive different skills requirements which need to be developed as the transition from diesel to electric powered buses progresses.
Future Fuels Blueprint: Maritime Decarbonisation
Publisher: Connected Places Catapult
Date: December 2024
Much like the airports and airlines, ports and ship operators are developing net zero futures and plans, and here we find some useful technology readiness charts and pathways. When we have a view of the maturity of a technology and its availability, we can start to plan the appropriate skills required and assess the scale of training. We are sure leading ports like Portsmouth International Port will find this blueprint of value.
Liverpool-Belfast Green Shipping Corridor
Publisher: UK Department for Transport, Innovate UK
Date: September 2024
Charts the process for how traditional sectors like shipping and maritime can review their status, map pathways, and set up pilot projects. Given the capital required, it’s important to start early and seek support from current facilities (significantly from local skills and training facilities and digital tools and systems). This report will be useful to many of the ports around the UK to inform their thinking and net zero pathway plans.
DESTINATION 2050: Roadmap to Net-Zero European Aviation
Publisher: ACI Europe, DESTINATION 2050
Date: February 2025
Airlines and airports are active, but we do wonder if net zero air travel will be achieved by 2050. The role of hydrogen is greatly reduced: it was seen as being a 20% contributor in 2021 but is now only rated at 6% by 2050. Some hydrogen projects are still running and are expected to deliver in the longer term, but the costs are spiralling (now at €1.3tn in extra costs to reach net zero, €480bn more than previously thought). SAF remain the best bet so far despite its limitations. If this area is of interest, then the European Aviation Environmental Report 2025 (January 2025) from EUASA is also worth looking at. The message we take away from these two reports is the importance of updating roadmaps to steer sector research and development.
Local Airport Activity and Climate Change
Publisher: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Date: 2025
We imagine quite a few airport operators will be looking at this guide over the coming weeks as multiple airports have been given “permission” to expand. Developing net zero plans for airports, airlines and frequent fliers is a critical part of the decarbonisation of transport and will be high profile for the next 20-25 years. They will also demand high level analytical skills and highly developed abilities to engage and communicate in order to secure “licence to operate” and continue in business.
Innovation Gaps and Barriers to Zero-Emission Airports
Publisher: UK Government, Zero-Emission Airports Project
Date: April 2024
One major point made here is that current airport skillsets are different from the decarbonised ones. Key technologies such as zero-emission flight, automation and enhanced electrification require new capabilities, and there is therefore a need to upskill and reskill the sector. This topic is explored in Connected Places Catapult’s Future Aviation Skills Strategy (2023). We note there is also a new Centre for Sustainable Aviation at UCL.
Zero Emissions Airports: Transition Plan 2040
Publisher: UK Department for Transport, Connected Places Catapult
Date: July 2024
We are left thinking here the net zero transition hill is a high one for aviation and airports to climb. Skills barely get a mention here nor workforce issues, which is surprising given the regulatory environment in which the whole industry operates.
Electric Vehicle Charging Stations at Airport Passenger Parking Facilities
Publisher: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Date: 2025
Leaving aside the obvious contradiction here, the workforce implications do get a brief mention. For those seeking to understand the issues of high numbers of EV charging points there are a set of case studies in the appendix.
Towards Sustainable Mobility: Transformative Scenarios for 2034
Publisher: Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Date: December 2022
An excellent examination of walking and cycling and their contribution towards a sustainable transportation system, at the same time improving air quality, health and use of urban space. From a jobs and skills point of view, we have not yet found the research that links sustainable transport with urban area development and rejuvenation.