We are going to need lots more green skills

Taking part yesterday evening in a debate on our country’s skills needs for a low carbon future, I drew two conclusions.
The first is that we need to make the intellectual case for equpping our workforce with skills for jobs which in many cases do not yet exist. Traditionally, employers look for business opportunities and when they see a market for their goods and services they skill up for that trade. Yet if we wait for the markets to open up for low carbon goods and services we will find that progress will be hampered by skills shortages. When these markets open up, they will be global – that’s global in the opportunities for business and global in exposure to competition.
So for once, we need to skill up in advance of being able to see the markets. The obvious challenge is therefore to convince employers, and convince students and workers who will invest time and money is gaining qualifications, that these markets will then be present by the time the skilling process has been completed.
This is the difficult bit. But I say look at the Climate Change Act, look at the EU’s position on tackling climate change through saving energy, cutting carbon emissions and building up renewable energy sources and look at the growing international support for the partial deal done at Copenhagen. What all these steps tell us is that in this single decade there will be a massive shift from a carbon-based global economy to a low carbon economy. This political priority will quickly turn into an economic necessity. It doesn’t matter whether the motivation is a desire to tackle climate change or to diversify away from a dependence on finite supplies of carbon fuels or to keep energy costs affordable over the long term – whichever motive dominates, the answer is rapid transformation to a low carbon economy.
So it is vital that we make the case that the jobs will be there, in every walk of life, for people who now take the plunge and acquire green skills. Jobs in finance (green deals, carbon trading), in management (project management, procurement), in manufacturing (advanced manufacturing, low carbon solutions), in services (energy and waste systems management, district heating, combined heat & power), in sales (feed-in tariffs, follow-up maintenance) and so on.
The second conclusion I drew from yesterday’s debate is the pressing need for cultural change. Without doubt the firm foundation for this revolution in skills has to be a major increase in the pupils, students and graduates possessing STEM skills – that’s skills in sciences, technologies, engineering and maths. But our “me first” society and our obsession with celebrities has in the past made these subjects very un-cool. It’s time to break down the walls that obstruct progress – by our young people in particular – towards careers in areas of our economy where STEM skills are very valuable.
I was listening to a radio programme recently in which a man was asked why he now worked abroad rather than in his native UK. He said he was an engineer and in his host country his profession was respected but in the UK it was not. We have come to a pretty pass if this is true and we must work hard, and work urgently, to ensure that over the coming decade this is not a true statement of our society’s esteem for those with STEM qualifications.
By 2020, a successful national economy will be one that has led the way to a low carbon, resource efficient reality. Leading is important to secure the full fruits of the transformation – in terms of jobs at home and exports abroad as well as in terms of improved quality of life, energy security and affordable heat and light.
Some habits have to be broken, some existing values challenged. But the prize could be immense: a clean, green and prosperous future for UK plc.

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