Green skills: every employee will have a role to play if we are to hit net zero by 2050

In 2022, YouGov research reported that 64% of British consumers do not understand what “green skills” means. So while the need for green skills has never been more important, it seems that they are still far down the list of priorities. Why is this? And what can we do about it?

Green skills are broader than just building wind turbines

Shortly after COP26, I spoke with a group of business leaders about how sustainable business has changed over the past decade and what would stop us from hitting our 2030 and 2050 carbon targets. It was generally agreed that many of the old barriers to sustainable business have disappeared. As Wunderkind’s ‘CMO State of the Union’ report found, cost of living increases has led to people wanting more products that help them be more sustainable rather than less. Thanks to the dramatic fall in the price of renewables, with IRENA reporting that solar costs dropped 13% in 2021 and onshore wind 15%, and the volatility of gas prices in 2022, cost is no longer the issue it was. Green energy is demonstrably the answer to the energy trilemma of low-carbon, secure and affordable energy.

However, this has not translated into carbon reduction, with global emissions in 2022 predicted to be higher than ever before. I was reminded of a talk by Ian Marchant, the outgoing CEO of SSE and President of the Energy Institute, in 2013. He challenged the view that solving the energy trilemma would be sufficient for us to achieve a sustainable future. We require more than affordability, security of supply and decarbonisation; we need to solve the shortage of green skills: it is an energy quadrilemma rather than a trilemma.

The problem is that green skills are more than knowing how to build EV batteries, create solar arrays or install wind farms. To achieve the i