Your future: what are green jobs?
Climate change is a challenge that confronts us all. But an opportunity presents itself in the wake of the pandemic to focus on a green ‘recovery’ to boost the economy, protect the environment and re-invigorate careers.
There is significant government investment promised to UK industry to cut carbon emissions and jobs will be created to make this happen. According to a Local Government Association report there could be as many as 694,000 direct jobs employed in the low-carbon and renewable energy economy in England by 2030 and over 1.18 million by 2050.
Green jobs have a direct, positive impact on the planet, such as renewable energy, electric transport, energy efficiency or nature conservation. But in the near future even more jobs will be required to become ‘green.’ For instance:
- product designers will be asked to focus more and more on sustainability
- data engineers will have to limit the environmental impact of computing infrastructure
- investment analysts will need to understand how to assess a business’ exposure to climate risk and make investment recommendations that account for this risk.
Both new and increased opportunities are expected to be created in areas including:
- Environment sector, in recycling and waste management, ecosystem services and research, and sustainability consultancy and environmental law roles that will impact many other sectors
- Electrical engineering for electric vehicles in the transport sector
- Energy sector, including geoscientist, alternative fuel production (such as wave energy) and hydrologist
- Product design and other creative industries.
To learn more about these and other green careers have a look at our sector guides and Prospects job profiles. TARGETjobs also has some good information about green careers in general, including links to key professional organisations and environmentally friendly employers.
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