The Green Edge Take – May 2025
Our take on the crop of green reports from this month's 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
֎ Green Skills Map
Author/publisher: greenskills.org
Publication Date: March 2025
If you only click through to one item this month, take a look at this Green Skills Map. It’s a major step forward and breaks green skills down into 11 core areas, 54 sub-areas and 243 green skills clusters. The eleven core skill areas are: enabling, natural capital, food system, circular economy, carbon market, green data and finance, green resource, renewable energy, green grid, built environment, and green mobility. HolonIQ kicked off the process and it was added to through an open-source approach to developing the map. If this is of interest, take a look at Future17 developed by the University of Exeter (17 refers to the SDGs), and the wider Global Skills Week event run in Washington DC in March 2025.
Powering the Future
Author/publisher: JTL Training
Publication Date: May 2025
A short, simple report with a very big operational and strategic message: we need to train a lot more electricians just to handle the base workload before we even start to factor in the pipeline of infrastructure work (a lot of which is for clean energy projects). There’s a range of strategic skillsets upon which the future of the UK will be built and electricians are certainly one of them—this should be recognised in any ‘shortage list’ from the Migration Advisory Committee.
Blueprint for Electrification
Author/publisher: Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA)
Publication Date: April 2025
Makes the case for electricians—why we need more of them, and beyond skills, the trust the public has in them for making clean power decisions. It would be good to see the equivalent for plumbers and heating engineers (including gas boiler engineers) and their transition to support the clean power growth.
From Skills Anticipation to Skills Action
Author/publisher: European Training Foundation (ETF)
Publication Date: 2025
There’s a couple of interesting chapters here about agri-food and steel, but an early section, “a standard view of how the green and digital transitions affect skills demand” (pages 10-12) took our attention, giving us a concise description of the change process of the content of work. Understanding the process through which changes of work is taking place is key to seeing where we are going next.
Skills Transition Programmes
Author/publisher: Shell UK
Publication Date: January 2025
Describes Shell UK’s initiatives to support its employees and others to reskill for the energy transition. The written evidence to a select committee is also useful as it provides an insight into Shell’s views across the UK’s skills system for the clean energy transition.
Global In-Demand Skills Report
Author/publisher: Randstad Enterprise
Publication Date: December 2024
The single big message that struck us here is the notion of systems within systems i.e. national labour markets bound to international ones, with major shifts taking place in skills demand across the world. The data used here is drawn from 10 million job postings and 136 million CVs.
Assessing and Anticipating Skills for the Green Transition
Author/publisher: OECD
Publication Date: September 2023
For those trying to understand how a few major OECD member countries are going about their assessment and anticipation of green skills. Looks at Australia, Austria, France, Norway and Sweden, showing a series of Tables (e.g. 2.1 and 3.1) which list the countries and the relevant studies. We need a set of international definitions and categories to allow comparisons to be made and to understand how labour markets are adjusting to new skills and job demands.
Green Skills and Knowledge – Labelling ESCO
Author/publisher: European Commission
Publication Date: January 2022 (updated January 2025)
With the claims being made around the number and quality of green jobs, it is important that we have a robust way of measuring developments over time. We also need an effective way of classifying tasks, skills and jobs to help shape curricula, careers advice, etc. So, combining ESCO with related skills intelligence is a good way to go. This technical note describes the process being used.
QS World Future Skills Index
Author/publisher: QS Quacquarelli Symonds
Publication Date: January 2025
Overall key message: innovation in a country’s higher education system and ensuring the sector’s long-term sustainability is fundamental to a growing national economy. Several elements of real interest here, ranging from the top green skills (page 13) to the application of four core metrics (and 16 sub measures) to assessing a national HE system (page 23). The UK does well and tops the rankings in the core metrics for aligning to employer needs and academic readiness. The framework used is like the ESI (European Skills Index). While the overall report does have some national case studies (UK pages 42-43), there are also a series of dedicated national reports. It will be interesting to see how this index is developed further and if it will generate a series of sub-national (regional) measures to look at whole skills systems, and the role played by HE within them.
OCR Level 3 Certificate in Sustainability
Author/publisher: OCR (Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations)
Publication Date: February 2025
Looking through the list of acknowledgements in this specification we get a good impression of the students who might be benefitting from gaining a certificate from this course. The spread of content (pages 18-31) is impressive and supports the development of a wide-ranging and practical understanding of sustainability. It would be interesting to map this certificate to the Green Skills Map (listed above).
National Skills Taxonomy Discussion Paper
Author/publisher: Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA)
Publication Date: June 2024
An up-to-date skills taxonomy that can accommodate changes in the skills and their use across the economy is important to track changes in demand. This paper covers the purpose and use cases of a taxonomy, drawing on O*NET, ESCO and SFw (Singapore’s Skills Framework). The 1,000 employer-strong Clean Energy Council in Australia made a submission and argues the need for a taxonomy that fully recognises emerging green skills and jobs.
The Market for Skills. Apprenticeship and Economic Growth in Early Modern England
Patrick Wallis, Princeton University Press, April 2025.
Link (book)
A great historical read with a few lessons for the future. The study covers the period from 1500 to 1800 and manages to show the critical role apprenticeships played in economic growth—for 300 hundred years apprenticeships were THE main form of skills development. It is also worth noting this good role of apprenticeships was a by-product of a law designed to limit the flow of workers from agriculture into other commercial activities. Today, across multiple workplaces there is the potential for the renaissance of the apprenticeship system—we hope the revision of the levy allows this to be fully realised.
UKRI Technician Commitment Action Plan
Author/publisher: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
Publication Date: January 2021
We include this action plan from the UKRI because technicians are a key occupation, not only for research and development across state funded programmes but also across all areas of technology development, application, operation and maintenance. It is surely time for this action plan to be updated and extended to at least cover all state-funded programmes (e.g. in the NHS, Education, etc.), as the health and strength of the technician occupation is a good barometer of technology progress and likely success.
Labour Market
֎ Research on Green Jobs: Reflections with Practitioners
Author/publisher: Sustainable Economies Research Group, UWE
Publication Date: March 2025
A helpful and comprehensive review of the literature, highlighting the focus of much current research on net job creation. Goes on to identify the needs for future research on green jobs metrics, research informing employment and skills plans, just transition and green jobs, and barriers to green jobs and the green economy. A couple of illustrations developed in this paper we think will find their way into many presentations.
֎ Green Jobs: A Literature Review
Author/publisher: Bucharest University of Economic Studies
Publication Date: June 2022
What does the term and concept ‘green jobs’ mean? Quite a bit, according to the reviewed literature on sustainable development, green economy, circular economy, welfare economy, the European Green Pact, energy, renewable energy, economic development and employment. This is all brought together in Figure 1: Network of key term associations. Overall, the review highlights the need for definitions and metrics we can all work to and use to assess progress and development across the world.
֎ Green Jobs in the UK: ESCOE and ONS Evidence
Author/publisher: ESCoE and ONS
Publication Date: October 2024
Looks at the period 2011-2018 and finds that individuals are more likely to work in green occupations if they are white, male, full-time, are not in a trade union, and work in SMEs or foreign-owned businesses. While we think the biases (inequities) are probably still evident in the ‘green labour force’, given the growth in the number of green jobs it would be worth running this analysis again through to 2024 and 2025.
֎ Greener Workplaces Toolkit
Author/publisher: Trades Union Congress (TUC)
Publication Date: December 2024
The TUC should be congratulated on developing this toolkit, which we see as one that could be used in any workplace and by anyone (not just trade union reps). Full of case studies, useful checklists, sector and issue reviews, and key facts—see Table 1 which lists the number of jobs at risk due to the net zero transition (direct and indirect losses). We could also see the toolkit being used as a teaching resource, perhaps complementing OCR’s new Level 3 Certificate Sustainability (see above).
Just Transition Indicator Framework (Ireland)
Author/publisher: Environmental Protection Agency (Ireland)
Publication Date: April 2025
An excellent synthesis which, in developing the Just Transition Indicator Framework for Ireland, identifies six domains of which one is skills and employment. The skills domain is picked up in detail in Section 2.1.2 (Employment, Skills Development and Economic Resilience) and we also found a helpful table (3.5). We think this report will be of use to others wanting to understand the just transition and the centrality of skills. It also learns much from the experience of Scotland.
What Is a Just Transition? (WRI Explainer)
Author/publisher: World Resources Institute (WRI)
Publication Date: May 2025
Great for those wanting a quick read on a ‘just transition’; builds on a webinar WRI ran recently drawing upon practical examples in countries like Scotland and South Africa. The ability to adjust the skills of current employees (and those entering the workforce) and of whole communities is central to a ‘just transition’. This is why we are so interested in the whole area.
Just Transitions Monitoring Guide (ICAT/WRI)
Author/publisher: ICAT / World Resources Institute
Publication Date: February 2025
Central to the net zero transition is the need to engage and involve all stakeholders and all people impacted—this also covers skills development. This guide is a great help for anyone putting together their own just transition which can operate at multiple levels. Draws upon the work of the Just Transition Commission in Scotland, a pioneering body we feel the UK Government should recognise and build upon.
Just Transition Taxonomy (World Bank)
Author/publisher: World Bank
Publication Date: June 2024
As part of the development of just transition to formal status within the COP process, the World Bank has attempted to look across several approaches to develop an agreed taxonomy. For us there are 5 skills-related implications for a Just Transition in the Coal Industry—Reskilling and Upskilling for Low-Carbon Employment; Early Workforce Transition Planning; Integration of Just Transition into National Skills Strategies; Support for Community-Level Capacity Building; and Gender and Social Inclusion in Skills Development.
Opportunity and Productivity: Tertiary Harmonisation Roadmap
Author/publisher: Jobs and Skills Australia
Publication Date: February 2025
Harmonising HE and FE is potentially an important development in aligning the supply side of skills and knowledge development, and we can see aspects of this in England with greater devolution to combined authorities. Scotland has a head start here as it operates a combined funding structure for FE and HE. This report is a useful starter for anyone seeking to explore FE and HE alignment, building on the strengths of parts of the tertiary education system.
Impacts of Birthrate Decline
Author/publisher: UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology
Publication Date: May 2025
Our interest here is the medium- and long-term impact on the labour market of a reduced birthrate, and the implications of a reduction in the supply of new entrants into work. A simple message for us: the labour market will become more competitive, placing greater pressure on the upskilling and reskilling of those in work. It also raises the challenge of retaining skills as the rate of retirees grows.
QS World University Rankings Yearbook 2025
Author/publisher: QS Quacquarelli Symonds
Publication Date: May 2025
Always an interesting publication. This time two sections caught our eyes: one on the AI education explosion (pages 42-47) and another on the rankings around sustainability (pages 61-89). The latter rankings are quite different from the overall one, and a different range of UK universities do very well. Remember this sustainability ranking also covers education.
֎ Estimating Labour Market Transitions and Skills Investment
Author/publisher: European Commission
Publication Date: March 2025
Taking the transforming sectors (energy, mining and quarrying, construction, manufacturing, and waste) as the core of the analysis, two parts stand out for us: first, the movement of workers between the transforming (energy intensive) sectors (there is a good graphic showing this, see Figure 6, page 16); and second, the levels of investment to support the skills development for the growing wind and solar industries (here a single table summarises the scale and costs, Table 1, page 26).
Future-Proofing Workforces for the Green Transition
Author/publisher: OECD
Publication Date: June 2024
Provides a great profile of the greening of the USA economy at State level, with a few sectoral deep dives. We see a large range from State to State. The appendix contains links to many other useful resources.
Sustainability in College Learning and Teaching
Author/publisher: EAUC Scotland
Publication Date: November 2024
Progressing the development of a key part of the education and training system—in this case FE colleges, of which there are 24 in Scotland—is critical to the net zero transition, and the full integration of sustainability into all curricula is also key. This report is a good status report and also provides an expanding set of case studies. We take a few thoughts away from reading this report: first, we need the same approach to be adopted across the whole of the UK; second, adopting a holistic approach to curriculum development equips all students and helps them to access the huge range of opportunities as the economy greens. The bottom line: it is the duty of education and training to ensure all students and citizens are fully aware and knowledgeable of sustainability.
The Changing Face of the Youth Labour Market
Author/publisher: CIPD
Publication Date: December 2024
The flow of young people into work and the labour market is a critical part of any skills system, so it’s important to understand how those flows are operating (or not). This report by the CIPD provides a comprehensive review of the status of the youth labour market and its major drivers—like the growth in higher education and the decline of the uptake in apprenticeships. Well worth a read; it would be great if the work was extended to look at the subsequent progress of youth into careers, seeking to find out how the current advisory system is helping guide key choices.
China’s First Workforce Skills Taxonomy
Author/publisher: Sun Yat-sen University / CSIRO / MIT
Publication Date: 2020
A fascinating paper using O*NET to explore developments in the Chinese labour market. Finds several elements of polarisation at roles, and at regional levels. The resulting dataset is open access. The paper also illustrates the value of having an accessible occupational information system and taxonomy, which can be applied around the world. It would be good now to run the analysis with a focus on the green economy and look for similarities and differences between China and other countries.
UCU Green Survey Report
Author/publisher: UCU Scotland
Publication Date: March 2025
How organisations become “green” is an important part of the net zero transition. This survey covers the university sector in Scotland and the role of green trade union reps in the process. It would be good to see this survey repeated annually or bi-annually, to see how the role of the green reps and overall “greening process” both develop.
2025 Work Trend Index Annual Report
Author/publisher: Microsoft
Publication Date: April 2025
We track AI and its impact and role in the changing labour market as it is a major transformational force. But while it is a major enabler for sustainability, it is also a major user of energy, both renewable or otherwise. We have not seen analyses showing the relationships between the uptake of AI and sustainability practices and overall efficiency focus—but our overall assumption is that there is a direct link.
Future of AI: Perspectives for Startups
Author/publisher: Google Cloud
Publication Date: April 2025
A useful sense check of where we are and what is seen to lie ahead, seen through the eyes of an active set of AI business founders and CEOs.
Regional Development and Devolution
֎ Futureproofing Growth through the Modern Industrial Strategy
Author/publisher: Aldersgate Group
Publication Date: May 2025
The green economy is set to grow from 0.8% of GDP today to around 6% by 2050, so any industrial strategy must embed sustainability across all sectors to future proof growth. This briefing looks across several sectors (advanced manufacturing, financial services, defence, professional and business services, clean energy industries, digital and technology, creative industries, and life sciences) and presents a series of case studies in each one. Skills do get raised, most frequently under financial services.
Scotland’s Carbon Budgets
Author/publisher: Climate Change Committee (CCC)
Publication Date: May 2025
Reading this advice report five questions are raised in our minds as regards skills. First, does Scotland have a workforce with the technical skills necessary to deploy key low-carbon technologies at scale? Second, are there enough education, training, and retraining programmes to support workers transitioning from high-carbon sectors (e.g., oil and gas) to low-carbon industries? Third, do public institutions and local authorities have the policy design and implementation capabilities to drive action in devolved areas? Fourth, are Scottish farmers, land managers and rural communities equipped with the knowledge and support needed to shift toward low-carbon and nature-based practices? And fifth, is there a robust public engagement and communication strategy to increase public understanding and uptake of low-carbon behaviours and technologies? We shall see.
Understanding Geographies of Innovation
Author/publisher: Innovation and Research Caucus (UKRI/ESRC)
Publication Date: April 2025
A valuable analysis and portrayal of data across the UK, mapping innovation activity from a UKRI perspective. Two useful bits for us: first, the map of innovation clusters which includes net zero (Figure 5, page 28); and second, the case study analysis of non-health engineering biology which covers biofuels (Figure 3, page 20). It would be good to see this approach applied to all of the sectors identified within the UK industrial strategy.
Regional Transformational Opportunities – Highlands and Islands
Author/publisher: Highlands and Islands Enterprise
Publication Date: May 2025
A comprehensive report covering projects in the Highlands and Islands, many of which are focused on offshore wind, green hydrogen, marine energy, marine biotechnology and processing, pumped storage, hydro, and onshore wind. While the numbers of new jobs are impressively high, managing these levels of growth during construction and operation will pose a significant strain on sparsely populated areas.
The Future of Cities
Author/publisher: WPI Economics for Network Rail
Publication Date: January 2025
Taking a longer-term view of how cities and their need for legacy and new transport systems will change is important as we take major decisions around infrastructure in the net zero transition. The scenarios described here are the start of this process, and should be built upon and integrated with a future view of the structure labour market.
The Economic Impact of Scotland’s Renewable Energy Sector
Author/publisher: Fraser of Allander Institute
Publication Date: December 2023
A useful update on the growing renewable energy sector in Scotland. The analysis covers eight renewable energy technologies and finds that it supports a total of 55,600 jobs and generates around £16.2bn in output. Of particular interest is that when the jobs totals are allocated by sector and the main occupation groups, the spread of impact is seen across all areas and directly supports the development of the decarbonising industrial base.
Northern Ireland’s Fourth Carbon Budget
Author/publisher: Climate Change Committee
Publication Date: March 2025
How different the carbon budgets for the separate nations of the UK are regarding emissions! In Northern Ireland the largest emissions come from agriculture, which brings the same challenges we see right across the UK. Skills and workers do get a mention but only linked to a call for a Net Zero Skills Action Plan.
East Anglia Insights Paper
Author/publisher: Bennett Institute / The Productivity Institute
Publication Date: January 2025
A detailed, data-driven analysis of the economy of the region, covering both skills and net zero (decarbonisation and sustainability) and showing the major clusters and potential growth foci. Uses a number of approaches and tools that would be great to see used across all regions and nations of the UK.
Unlocking First-of-a-Kind Projects through Clean Industrial Hubs
Author/publisher: Mission Possible Partnership / RMI
Publication Date: May 2025
Takes us through FOAK (first-of-a-kind) and NOAK (nth-of-a-kind) projects across six sectors—low emissions hydrogen, SAF, electrolytic methanol and electrolytic ammonia, concrete and cement, low emissions steel, and zero emissions trucking. Provides a step-by-step guide to create a clean industrial hub (see Exhibit 5, page 18). Quoted in the report are the 700 industrial decarbonisation projects world-wide, of which only 136 are at the “final investment decision” stage. Also in the thinking here is the creation of a skills ecosystem that eases the transition to net zero. As always with RMI documents, it is very well illustrated.
UKRI: Providing Support through Grants
Author/publisher: National Audit Office
Publication Date: May 2025
UKRI invests nearly £10bn in projects across the UK each year, spread across a number of strategic programmes. One of the guiding principles of UKRI when it comes to allocating its funding is to act in support of national growth and the achievment of net zero. We feel this report is interesting but does not present UKRI in a light that is most helpful to the UK Parliament. For example, there have been several studies using the UKRI grants database to map innovation, research networks etc. which is a start in showing the specific and systems wide impact. The UKRI Workforce Forecasting Hub is not mentioned either, which is a shame because it is a helpful resource for future skills planning.
Delegation of Adult Education Functions – MoU with the GLA
Author/publisher: Department for Education / Greater London Authority
Publication Date: April 2025
The localisation of skills funding and decision making is seen by many as being critical to making bespoke solutions to specific local needs and conditions. This pair of documents cover the agreement to allow this to happen to multiple combined authorities (often referred to mayoral authorities) and London. Tracking how these funds will be applied will be a important task over the coming years.
Toolkit: Delivering Social Wellbeing in Green and Thriving Neighbourhoods
Author/publisher: C40 Cities / Ramboll
Publication Date: May 2025
One for planners and city officials. Provides a straightforward set of steps to work through, all illustrated with case studies. There’s also a separate workbook. Our interest here is in the combination of making urban areas liveable with a changing climate, and the whole quality of citizen wellbeing and quality of life. This combination is reminiscent of the garden city movement of Ebenezer Howard starting in 1898.
The Northern Arc Working Paper
Author/publisher: Northern Arc Partnership
Publication Date: April 2025
All part of the case for the potential of multi-city region cooperation to develop co-ordinated plans for strategic infrastructure investment, allied to stability and continuity of UK Government support. For us, making real and lasting progress on the net zero transition requires high levels of co-operation and partnership driven by local ownership and political leadership, which then drives investments in capital and people.
A Global and Inclusive Just Labour Transition
Author/publisher: Environmental Defense Fund
Publication Date: August 2024
An intriguing study through the just transition lens of seven developed and seven developing countries, with all the countries are rated as regards their progress (Tables 6.2 and 6.3). Two countries are rated “advanced”: Germany and the UK. We are slightly surprised the UK is rated thus—we further note that the analysis does not split the UK down into its constituent nations, perhaps highlighting Scotland’s Just Transition Commission and its positive, impactful actions.
National Governance Strategies for Net Zero (POST)
Author/publisher: Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST)
Publication Date: May 2025
A useful note, outlining the seven attributes of a successful net-zero transition: front-loaded emission reduction, a comprehensive approach to emission reduction, cautious use of carbon dioxide removal and storage, effective regulation of carbon offsets, an equitable transition to net zero, alignment with broader social and ecological objectives, and the pursuit of new economic opportunities. Wrapped around each of these, we see attributes ranging from retrofitting to citizen engagement.
Green Jobs in Scotland
Author/publisher: Scottish Trades Union Congress / Transition Economics
Publication Date: April 2021
A little dated but useful all the same. Shows that Scotland could expect 156,000 - 367,000 green jobs across energy, buildings, transport, manufacturing and heavy industry, waste, and agriculture and land use. It would be good to update this analysis, and look more widely across the greening economy (perhaps using the definitions used for the Green Skills Map).
Pot Pourri
֎ Progress in Adapting to Climate Change – CCC 2025
Author/publisher: Climate Change Committee
Publication Date: April 2025
In our view there are five skills message coming from this report. First, a critical shortfall in adaptation skills across government and sectors; second, climate resilience needs to be embedded in workforce training and professional standards; third, data, monitoring, and evaluation skills are urgently needed; fourth, coordination and systems-thinking skills are essential to address interdependencies; and fifth, a skilled workforce is needed to implement adaptation in key sectors like land use, health, and infrastructure. For a useful summary, see Table 1 (pages 13-15) and Figure 1 (page 16). We see very little green.
Climate Change Accounting – Supplementary Green Book Guidance
Author/publisher: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)
Publication Date: April 2025
An excellent addition, full of checklists and prompts to ensure the building-in of climate change into financial plans and thinking. The test for us will be how well the guide gets used—the UK Civil Service in the UK has also developed excellent guides, but often we do not see their use being too widespread. We think a number of non-government organisations would also find this document useful.
New Energy Outlook 2025 – Executive Summary
Author/publisher: BloombergNEF
Publication Date: April 2025
We always find Bloomberg NEF’s energy outlooks sobering and instructive. Here we see some big global and strategic messages around data centres and their energy usage (and future demand); the fundamentals driving renewables and EV growth; uncertainties in the decline of fossil fuels; limits in hydrogen and CCUS; and the degrees of progress in the hard-to-abate sectors. The list goes on. From a skills perspective, this means the transition continues and we need to develop the talent pipeline for the future.
European Industry and the European Union’s Climate Policy in 2024–29
Author/Publisher: InfluenceMap / LobbyMap
Publication Date: May 2025
A significant uptick in the level of corporate commitment to the international climate targets over the 2019-2024 period. This runs counter to the steady flow of negative media coverage of climate change targets and the net zero transition.
The Climate Paradox
Author/publisher: Tony Blair Institute for Global Change
Publication Date: April 2025
Challenges policymakers to reframe the climate change debate (while fully recognising its reality) and places much greater emphasis on technology and innovation to reach the net zero targets. Some might argue that technology over-reach and over-optimism is being played out here. A useful challenge to the balance and mix of policies and investments. But if it were to gain full currency, it would have profound implications for skills. If this report is of interest, it is worth going back to the Absolute Zero report by UK FIRES which is subtitled: “delivering the UK’s climate change commitment with incremental changes to today’s technologies”.
Ecological Modernisation Theory in Debate
Author/publisher: Mol, Sonnenfeld, and Spaargaren (2000)
Publication Date: 2000
This one might seem a little esoteric but environmental modernisation theory (EMT) argues that environmental problems can be addressed through technological innovation, economic growth and institutional reform, all while maintaining the existing political and economic structures. This is probably the camp into which the bulk of countries fall into currently, and we think that making explicit the core assumptions which underpins Government policies is a worthwhile exercise. If this theme is of interest, there are others—see, for example, skills ecosystems and human resources approaches to viewing the greening of work.
Sociotechnical Transitions to Sustainability
Author/publisher: Markard, Raven & Truffer
Publication Date: August 2019
Uses a systems modelling approach to help in understanding how the processes and interactions between energy, transport, housing, and agro-food systems change as part of the net zero transition. Helps to provide a framework for exploring the nature of change across complex systems.
A Tale of Two Towns
Author/publisher: common-wealth.org
Publication Date: November 2024
We include this report in our listing for those seeking evidence to understand why we need a just transition. The listing of the closure of collieries and factories in Mansfield (one of the case study towns alongside Corby) makes for depressing reading. Hopefully Corby will benefit from developments across the Cambridge-Oxford ARC, and Mansfield from developments in Sheffield and Nottingham.
A Better Life – The Green Route to Growth and Security
Author/publisher: Green Alliance
Publication Date: April 2025
A brief policy document that brings together resource and energy security, delivering UK wide growth and investment in public transport to tackle the multiple challenges being faced by the UK. A simple message: net zero policies and the greening of the economy are key binding elements for the UK’s progress.
AI, Robotisation, and Industrialisation
Author/publisher: Techniek Nederland
Publication Date: March 2025
Continuing our interest in AI in both its role in changing skills and work, and being a major driver of labour market change, this report is helpful on several counts. First, there is the historic context and the process of change since 1800—we think an understanding of the long-term process of workforce and labour market change is vital to exploring the greening of work. Second, the viewing of the near future (2030) through seven core concepts (applications of AI) is an approach which could be used in the green economy. Finally, we liked the use of AI to help the “grey to green” transition i.e. knowledge capture and transfer taking implicit skills relevant to the grey and green worlds of work.
Realising Net Zero Emissions – Best Practices
Author/publisher: World Resources Institute
Publication Date: June 2023 (Version 1.1)
Provides a useful framework for viewing net-zero climate action and uses a series of case studies from Costa Rica, Chile, South Africa, Denmark and France. Understanding how other national states are defining their net zero challenge and going about delivering significant, inclusive change is helpful when trying to understand how our own country is progressing.
Entrepreneurs Not Emissions
Author/publisher: UK FIRES
Publication Date: October 2021
Gaining progress towards net zero is a major challenge, and the mismatch between the demand for energy and its renewable supply creates a series of opportunities around reducing use, improving efficiencies, and so on. This report charts a number of these opportunities in graphic form. Each of these opportunities brings with its own skills needs.
Principles for an Inclusive and Sustainable Global Economy
Author/publisher: UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (G20 Brief)
Publication Date: April 2025
Beyond the four principles and the ten recommendations of this paper, we find a further set of assumptions to make progress towards a sustainable future based on collaboration, co-operation, and multilateral action. Political alignment is crucial, and we need to move together if the transition towards net zero is to be achieved.
Energy
General
Understanding Stellar Energy
Author/publisher: RethinkX
Publication Date: May 2025
The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero might find it useful to quickly turn to page 106—where the UK is presented as a case study (there are 20 others)—and learn more about the concept of the UK becoming a SWB (solar, wind and battery) superpower. The assumptions on which the national-level case studies are built are important as they are conservative and work with known and proven technologies.
AI Energy Council to ensure UK’s energy infrastructure ready for AI revolution
UK Government, April 2025.
Link (press release)
Apart from the power for AI and its data centres, this group is seeking to maximise the gains to be made by using AI to develop power options and to optimise delivery. The application of AI to net zero transition elements is a great example of using the best computational capability to create more effective solutions, and AI capabilities need to be embedded into sustainability skill sets.
AI and Energy Use and Emissions
Author/publisher: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publication Date: 2025
Our interest here is three-fold: first, data centres are major places of energy consumption and driving up consumption creating challenges; second, the owners and operators of data centres are driving new solutions for the supply of energy (i.e. they are investing in sources of energy supply) and might bring wider benefits; and thord, the use of AI in creating new energy solutions. Just as at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the drivers of the AI revolution might also drive new energy solutions.
Energy Sector Innovation with Absolute Zero
Author/publisher: UK FIRES / University of Cambridge
Publication Date: April 2022
Tackles the looming realisation that supply will not match demand for renewable electricity, and this mismatch opens up a series of opportunities around energy efficiency, time-shifting of demand, electrification of final energy demand, and the decommissioning of redundant assets an infrastructure. Realising these opportunities all need skills and capabilities.
Energy Industry Insights 2025
Author/publisher: DNV
Publication Date: April 2025
Based on a large-scale survey. Two things struck us here: first, of the three outlooks given by respondents, only the “neutral” one identified skill as being an issue; and second, while the survey found that the majority want a just transition, only half expected one.
Infrastructure
Gas Decommissioning Policy Briefing
Author/publisher: UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources
Publication Date: February 2025
A useful reminder that with the electrification of domestic properties, there is a gas network to be managed and decommissioned. The gas network must be safe and maintain its integrity to the last customer switches, and this brings a cost and a requirement for a workforce (currently 1,500 - 2,000). While the flow of properties coming off the gas grid is relatively slow, it will increase, in particular as whole new developments are gas free from the start.
Electricity Transmission Costs and Characteristics
Author/publisher: Mott MacDonald in conjunction with the IET
Publication Date: April 2025
A detailed and comprehensive piece of work. Skills do show through (just) here, but the main message is that transmission is costly, and tunnelling is expensive—very expensive—when compared to pylons. The bigger problems stem from supply chain issues around the supply of cable.
Solar
Global Market Outlook for Solar Power 2025–2029
Author/publisher: SolarPower Europe
Publication Date: May 2025
A comprehensive view of the global market along with 20 country profiles (UK, pages 120-123). In the UK, one barrier referred to is financing for solar installations. Skills are hardly mentioned throughout the report which might suggest the continued growth of solar is meaning the development of a skills system which is investing to meet the growing demand.
Solutions for PV Cyber Risks to Grid Stability
Author/publisher: Smart PV Energy (SPE)
Publication Date: April 2025
Shows the interdependency between renewable energy and cyber security, and the crossover between two primary drivers of skill changes at work. A comprehensive risk register is included which also shows the skills dependency for the majority of mitigation actions.
Storage
European Battery Outlook 2025
Author/publisher: SolarPower Europe
Publication Date: May 2025
Simple message: growing fast but with significant geographic concentration in Germany (32%), Italy (21%) and the UK (17%). Perhaps surprisingly Spain is not a leader in battery storage given the scale of its renewable energy sector. The proportion of the battery storage in the UK is forecast to grow by 2029, and so indicates the importance of developing a process to support the skills needed by Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).
Wind
An Industry Perspective on Localization
Author/publisher: GWEC
Publication Date: April 2025
Focuses on a key element of all major wind projects—the localisation of content requirements—and this is illustrated through a series of case studies. Skills feature in a number of sections, with Section 6 being dedicated to them. Shows the potential for jobs generation and the need for a supportive training infrastructure.
Heat and Retrofit
Funding and Financing Heat Networks in Scotland
Author/publisher: ClimateXChange
Publication Date: March 2025
A valuable addition to our understanding of how best to overcome the barriers (four primary identified here: financial, regulatory and fiscal, technical, and social and market). In high density housing developments in urban areas we think heat networks are a major way of decarbonising homes and reducing the costs for the shift.
Agriculture and Food
Agritech Pioneers in Africa
Author/publisher: Agritech Digest
Publication Date: 2025
One paper per pioneer, providing a quick review of what is happening across the world through the eyes of innovating businesses. What is telling is the spread of the countries in which these businesses are based—the world of agriculture and food is changing.
Agro-Food System Innovation without GHG Emissions
Author/publisher: UK FIRES
Publication Date: November 2024
A fascinating read with five key insights: industrial food processing will be electrified; novel production and logistics solutions will match demand and supply in a timely and efficient manner; replacing ruminant meat and dairy would increase demand for alternative protein source by one third; more than half of UK land could be repurposed in a transformation of pastoral agriculture; and additional mitigation strategies must be developed and scaled-up at pace. The skills implications for each of these five insights are potentially huge, and for skills that are largely well known and defined.
Biotechnology
Industrial Biotech Innovation Catalyst – Greater Manchester
Author/publisher: Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Catalyst
Publication Date: 2025
Industrial biotechnology is the use of biological elements to create bio-based industrial products and processes e.g. biofuels, chemicals, pharmaceuticals. This emerging sector is set to grow and to be worth c£34bn. A clear message that comes from this short note is the need for skills, highlighting trained scientists and engineers.
Built Environment
Energy Efficiency in Buildings Working Paper
Author/publisher: State of Green
Publication Date: May 2025
This is the 3rd version of this White Paper, making the key message that efficiency must be core to our thinking around the built environment, as most of the buildings we will have in 2050 are with us now. The illustrations used here would be helpful to anyone trying to explore and explain what to do with their building, and to share this with students.
Bringing Super-efficient Air Conditioners to Market
Author/publisher: Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)
Publication Date: April 2025
Finding efficient ways to make the built environment liveable will rely on adopting new building and design approaches, and using more efficient air conditioners (natural cooling is also possible and is used in several cases). This report covers a project in India seeking to develop super-efficient air conditioners as a contribution to lessening the cost of losses due to heat stress world-wide, which stands at $2.4 trillion. India is a good test market as the current installation rate runs at 14mn AC units per year and ACs consume 243 GW of energy.
Buildings and Climate Report 2024
Author/publisher: GlobalABC / UNEP
Publication Date: April 2025 (release date of a meeting held in March 2024)
Proceedings and discussion of a UNEP event. Here Theme 5 caught our eye: decent jobs, capacity building, education, and professional training. Within this theme the message for us was the need to recognise occupations and work activities that do not exist in the “Developed World” i.e. jobs and roles that exist in the informal economy and often at community level.
Circular Economy
Circularity Gap Report 2025
Author/publisher: Circle Economy
Publication Date: May 2025
Draws on a large dataset across 90 nations, 350 cities and 1,000 businesses, and shows what has happened since 2018. Core message for us: the opportunity remains but progress has stalled driven by the growth in materials consumption and use. If this annual update is of interest, tracking a circular economy transition through jobs should also be.
Proposals for a Circular Economy Act (CEA)
Author/publisher: Zero Waste Europe / Dr. Dominic Hogg
Publication Date: April 2025
At the outset of this report we see two sets of numbers: in monetary terms the circular economy is projected to grow from EUR 31bn today to EUR 100bn by 2030, and in employment terms it should generate 500,000 new jobs across Europe. For us this is enough to say this report is worth reading, to understand the gap analysis it presents along with the three main policy options. Given the employment numbers established by the CIWM analysis of the UK circular economy, we would have thought the half-million new jobs as being too low.
Transitioning to a Circular Economy: Québec’s Experience
Author/publisher: Québec Circulaire / Smart Prosperity Institute
Publication Date: May 2021
We are always looking for case studies of how sectors and places are moving towards a circular economy. This is a good one and skills are raised repeatedly as being a key component—even a pillar—of the transition towards a CE.
Construction
Construction Sector Innovation with Absolute Zero Report
Author/publisher: UK FIRES
Publication Date: November 2022
The UK FIRES team at Cambridge Department of Engineering have produced some excellent pieces of research, and have also taken the time to produce very accessible communication materials. This is a gread read for anyone wanting to quickly understand the raft of changes facing construction, covering materials, design, project design, and planning and demand. Taking this document as a start point, it would be good to drop down into the skills implications.
Greening Construction Jobs and Skills
Author/publisher: EDGE / Green Skills Project
Publication Date: March 2022
A useful introduction to the topic providing a good status update, admittedly for 2022 but with the core messages still holding true. It would be good to see this report updated, and also to pick up on both retrofitting and the transferability of the skills in construction to other sectors like renewable energy installation.
Green Finance
Investing in the Green Economy 2025
Author/publisher: Grantham Research Institute, LSE
Publication Date: May 2025
Simple big message: revenues from green products and services have exceeded US$5 trillion and the green sector now lies fourth after technology, industrials and healthcare. A new growth area within the overall green sector is adaptation and resilience. If our reading is right, there are charts in here which says that the UK is underexposed to the green sector—there is room for further growth.
Mobilising Bonds for the Just Transition
Author/publisher: LSE Grantham Research Institute / Impact Investing Institute
Publication Date: April 2025
A useful analysis of 68 GSS+ (Green, Social, Sustainability, and Sustainability-linked) bonds. Our attention was particularly drawn to the ASCOR methodology and in particular “Indicator C” which asks, does the country have a green jobs strategy? That is a big question, and we would be hard pressed to name a country that has a viable green jobs strategy.
The 13th National Risk Assessment: Climate, the Sixth C of Credit
Author/publisher: First Street
Publication Date: May 2025
As the incidence of wildfires, hurricanes, and floods grows, there is an impact on mortgage foreclosures in the USA. We must start wondering when the insurance and credit sectors will respond by investing in prevention as their customer base shrinks. What also struck us reading this report was the pricing-in of climate change-caused catastrophes into our current cost base. We are only at the start of this process.
Net Zero Report 2025
Author/publisher: South Pole
Publication Date: 2025
From this large-scale survey of 350 institutions across 13 countries two simple messages hit us: first, the bulk (86%) of companies are on track or partially on track, and second, 81% are using carbon trading in some form. This means these financial organisations are equipping themselves with sustainability capability as they make progress—certainly this does not get raised as a barrier.
Transition Finance Tracker
Author/publisher: MSCI Sustainability Institute
Publication Date: April 2025
A great data and information-rich resource with one contradiction to us—companies committing to a target but who are currently lapsing in hitting it. Charting the flows of finance is also a good indicator of sustainable progress towards net zero, and the demand for skills which will follow.
Health
Research Agenda for Climate Resilience
Author/publisher: NAP Global Network
Publication Date: 2025
Helps with understanding the key questions to address around health and the complications created through climate change. Adapting and mitigating the health impacts of climate change bring with them additional capabilities to work through, and act on, the issues.
Manufacturing
֎ Absolute Zero: Materials and Manufacturing
Author/publisher: UK FIRES
Publication Date: January 2022
The picture often painted for a net/absolute zero future is all about cost and little about opportunity. This report paints a detailed picture of opportunities across six core themes: electrification, recycling, efficiency, service from goods, new demand for UK manufacturing, and the elimination of process emissions. The total of this opportunity(?) comes to £270bn. If so, a big link is to be made here with the UK Government’s growth agenda.
Natural Capital
Unlocking the Economic Power of Natural Capital Solutions
Author/publisher: Sustainable Policy Institute (SPI)
Publication Date: October 2024
The importance of natural capital as a part of the overall net zero transition is now fully established—look at the Mayfield Estate in Manchester. Expertise to assess and develop projects is critical, and this is recognised in this report. The skills for natural capital are complex; for an immediate view take a look at the Green Skills Map for the six pillars contained in the Natural Capital Skills cluster.
Steel
US Steel: Pathways to Decarbonisation
Author/publisher: Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)
Publication Date: January 2025
A useful short note about the decisions facing a series of steel plants in the US and their options to invest in CCUS or to shift to full electrification. There are some interesting points made about jobs, including the suggestion that indirect jobs gains can be significant if the full decarbonisation route is taken.
Transport
Global EV Outlook 2025
Author/publisher: International Energy Agency (IEA)
Publication Date: May 2025
We see growth across all EV categories: cars, light and heavy vehicles; and EVs will have 40% of the whole market by 2030. In terms of oil displacement, this will grow from 1.3 million barrels of oil per day to 5mn by 2030. But with a current daily worldwide consumption of 105mn barrels there is a long way to go before it significantly dents oil demand. From a skills perspective, the message is clear—electrification of road transport is growing strongly and will need skills programmes to support this growth.
Call to Aviation Action: Transition Pathways for a Sustainable Future
Author/publisher: callaviationtoaction.org
Publication Date: May 2025
An interesting new campaign which should produce some useful insights and information on aviation’s net zero transition.
Runways to Railways
Author/publisher: Campaign for Better Transport
Publication Date: April 2025
While the different modes of transport are all seeking to reduce their emissions, there is also the need to look across whole transport systems. In this case we’re looking at travel from the UK to mainland Europe. What would be good to know is the capacity that is freed up at airports because of the shift to railways, and the savings to be made in (limited) infrastructure capital investment pots. From a skills point of view, capital programmes for infrastructure are similar to both, but the actual forms of transport call for very different capabilities.
Water
Regulating for Investment and Outcomes in the Water Sector
Author/publisher: National Audit Office (NAO)
Publication Date: April 2025
From a skills point of view, several things leap out of this NAO report. First, the scale of the investment in thousands of projects over the coming decade or so, which will require a full range of civil engineering and project management skills (recognised in the report). Second, the local agreements that are emerging between water companies and FE colleges to attract and train the workforce for the capital investment programmes. Our third takeaway was the focus of the report: regulatory structures and their implementation, what can be learnt from what has (and hasn’t) been achieved in the water industry for other parts of the natural world.