Ryan Taylor | Changing climate of the workforce: climate jobs everywhere you look | Commentary

We are in 2025 and one thing is for sure: climate change is reshaping the global workforce.

That’s because climate change promises to transform the 21st century global economy, on a scale similar to the digital revolution or even the industrial revolution. Why? Because we must adapt to a rapidly overheating planet, and, secondly, we must de-carbonise industry to prevent further climate breakdown.

Both imperatives will require hundreds of millions of workers who understand what climate change is, and who are inspired to find ways of mitigating it, as well as managing their businesses, their jobs and their careers in this reality.

NEW WORK RELATED CHALLENGES

Suppose you are working in the agricultural-food sector; you will already know that food production is increasingly under threat from extreme weather events, such as floods, heatwaves, droughts, and the spread of new types of pests. Whether you work in hands-on farming, food processing, distribution, or even retail, climate adaptation is no longer optional;it’s essential to ensure the sustainability of your role and your business’s future. In fact, the very survival of many agricultural livelihoods are under risk due to the growing impacts of climate change.

Healthcare, both the medical profession itself and the insurance companies offering coverage, is being affected by all too real climate change impacts. Extreme heat, the spread of infectious diseases, increasing pollen, intense dust and wildfire smoke are all contributing to an epidemic of respiratory and immune disease. In fact, over half of all known pathogenic diseases can be aggravated by these and other changing climate factors. This explains why 65 per cent of US medical schools now require their students to complete course-work on climate change and its effect on human health, as of 2022.

Or take the finance industry. When giving out business loans, bankers at all levels will have to consider how physical climate risk and other environmental, social, and governance factors (ESG) could affect loan repayment. Asset managers are starting to do the same when choosing investments.

Still not convinced? Take another perhaps more surprising commercial sector also feeling the effects of climate change: telecommunications. During 2024’s hurricanes Helene and Milton, Comcast lost 100,000 subscribers because homes were tragically either completely lost or customers were forced to reprioritise their spending in the wake of such catastrophes.

As the impacts of climate change intensify, disruptions like these will become more frequent, affecting some sectors directly and others indirectly. This makes climate knowledge essential for both industry leaders and workers, not just for the future, but for the present.

EXPLOSION IN DIFFERENT JOBS

Building a climate-savvy workforce is crucial to navigating the challenges ahead, and for all the jobs that need to adapt to climate change, there are even more jobs being created that are involved in finding ways to minimise climate change moving forward.

Limiting temperature rise globally to below two degree Celsius will require a rapid global energy transformation. We need to triple our electricity generation by renewable energy by 2030, electrify industry and transportation, reduce agricultural emissions, and much more. This green transition is expected to create 300 million new green jobs by 2050. In the US alone, from 2022 to 2023, the clean energy industry surged ahead of fossil fuels to directly create nearly 150,000 new jobs, supporting many more in trades, manufacturing, construction, engineering and project management.

Perhaps even more significantly, hundreds of millions of existing jobs will become integral to the systemic decarbonisation of our economy. In departments from procurement to finance to facilities, existing workers will all be involved in reducing carbon emissions. Take facilities: energy efficiency measures like installing heat pumps and evaluating building performance appear on more and more job descriptions. Having green skills will simply become the norm. LinkedIn’s Global Green Skills Report from 2024 backs this up. Their data suggest that we need to double the size of our green talent pool by 2050 to keep pace with projected demand.

WILLING TO TAKE ACTION

Fortunately, 80 per cent of employees are ready and willing to take action on climate change in their jobs, and 70 per cent said that acting on climate change at work was important to their personal sense of motivation and wellbeing. Of course, employees cannot do it alone; addressing climate change will require corporate leadership, broad regulation and both public and private investment. But uplifting a green workforce is equally critical. At the end of the day, the task of minimising climate change will be carried out by billions of ordinary people, a theme captured in EARTHDAY.ORG’s theme for 2025, Our Power, Our Planet.

Climate education, including green skills training, will prepare students and workers of all ages to be the engineers, designers, innovators, business professionals, trade workers and entrepreneurs that we need to lead the green economic transition. This means basic climate literacy taught in primary and secondary schools, but more importantly, solutions-oriented green job training available to all.

The task is made more urgent by looming climate catastrophe, as climate extremes and an uncoordinated transition away from fossil fuels threatens over 800 million livelihoods, a quarter of the world’s workforce, the time to act is now.

EARTHDAY.ORG is calling on business leaders to join our campaign advocating for climate education in schools, colleges, and vocational training programmes worldwide. Companies, such as UPS, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and AXA Insurance have already pledged their support, and we invite you to add your voice to this critical initiative.

Ryan Taylor is corporate liaison, climate education, at EARTHDAY.ORG. This article has been reproduced from EARTHDAY.ORG blog. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.