As the annual global climate conference, the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) gets underway in Belém, Brazil, governments, global leaders, scientists and researchers are meeting to decide how to drive faster and bolder action to adapt to climate change, and one thing is clear, there’s never been a more crucial time for climate action and adaptation.
However there’s a major problem. We’re short on the one thing we need most: people with the skills to make adaptation possible. While demand for green talent is soaring with hiring rates for green talent being 54.6% greater than hiring rates overall (according to LinkedIn’s Global Green Skills Report 2024), demand greatly outweighs the supply. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, ‘despite a global 12% increase in workers acquiring green skills between 2022 and 2023, demand continues to outpace supply, with the number of job postings requiring at least one green skill rising by nearly 22% over the same period’.
From supply chain decarbonisation, sustainable building and retrofitting to renewable energy and ecosystem management, recent government climate policies mean that green skills are needed now more than ever to fully lead the green transition and meet the climate goals that have been set. So if you’re considering a career change, the climate workforce urgently needs you.
In this blog, we explore what green skills are, why the green skills gap is growing, where there is an opportunity for career changers, why your next career move could help build a better world and how we can help you start. Keep reading to learn more.
What are green skills?
Several definitions exist. The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) defines green skills as ‘the knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support a sustainable and resource-efficient society’. Similarly, UNICEF describes green skills as ‘the knowledge that we all need to develop and live in a sustainable society and environment.’ Simply put, whatever skills bring the planet closer to net zero and combatting the effects of climate change can be said to be “green skills”.
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University of Leeds
Leadership and Change Management for Sustainability SuccessBusiness & Management,Nature & Environment
Why is the green skills gap growing?
To set the scene, currently 13% of jobs in the UK require a green skill. The UK Government recently launched a Clean Energy Jobs Plan to work in partnership with industry and trade unions to invest in training and skills development, support the creation of new jobs and build a ‘highly skilled and diverse domestic clean energy workforce, with trade union representation embedded’, which among other things includes expanding its Energy Skills Passport project. This comes after the government’s Green Jobs Taskforce in 2020, which concluded in 2021.
Globally, applicants with green skills get hired faster than those without because they have more in-demand skills across industries – so why do so few people actually have green skills (in relation to demand) and why is the green skills gap growing? Here are a few reasons to explain why.
Limited investment and training
Despite the fact that 1 in every 3 employees that will make up the workforce in 2030 will be Gen Z, only 1 in 10 Gen Z workers will have green skills by then. While 78% of Gen Z employees believe that with the right upskilling opportunities they’d have the necessary skills for a green job, only 30% say their current employer offers green skills training. Without employer or government-backed training including courses, degrees, apprenticeships and other certifications, the future of a skilled green workforce remains out of reach.
Little public awareness
Less than 1 in 5 Gen Z employees have a full understanding of what green jobs are. Without an understanding of potential career paths, the skills needed and the opportunities available across industries, especially among those who will form, or already have formed, part of the workforce, it will be harder to close the skills gap in the coming years.
Barriers to entry
Surprisingly, recent research from jobs site Indeed found that for 27% of workers looking to enter green roles there were not enough available positions, and a further 23% said that the roles that were available weren’t local to them. Coupled with the fact that there also exists a green gender gap (currently 10% of women have at least one green skill, compared to 17% of men despite developing green skills at a faster rate), accessibility and barriers to entry remain a problem.
The opportunity for career changers
Green skills and green jobs are key to transforming the world we live in today and helping to reverse and mitigate the effects of climate change. If you’re thinking about changing careers or industries, boosting your green skills offers the perfect opportunity to unlock new industries and roles. From retrofitting homes and installing heat pumps to ESG reporting and climate data analysis, green careers are exploding, and sectors such as farming, oil, gas, and mining, construction, utilities, manufacturing, and even tech, IT and media are seeing a growing demand for professionals with the skills to drive positive change.
Your next career move could help build a better world
Innovative solutions and new ideas can’t be put to full use without the people with the knowledge, skills and experience to put them into action. To fully realise not just a greener workforce, but a more sustainable future, we need people across sectors to transform everything from the processes, systems, ways of working we use to the production and output in order to support a greener future. That could be you. By future-proofing your career with green skills in your industry, the potential to create and drive change is endless.
Your green skills: Where to start
Ready to boost your green skills? If you’re interested in bridging your skills gap, explore our range of online sustainability-focused courses, microcredentials and degrees and gain the skills that will shape your future, society and the planet. Learn from industry experts and leading academics from the world’s top universities and grow your green skills from wherever you are in the world.
- Resilience, Sustainability & Digitalisation in Critical Infrastructure, University of Birmingham
- Corporate Sustainability, Taipei Medical University
- Sustainability in Business: Building a Greener Future, University of Leeds
- Renewable Energy Microgrid: Integrating Green Hydrogen, Deakin University
- Effective Reporting for Sustainability, Deakin University
- Planning for Sustainability: Recycling and Waste in a Circular Economy, Deakin University
- Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and beyond, Aberystwyth University
- Emerging Technologies: Green Computing, Deakin University
- Bachelor of Sustainability, University of New England (UNE)
- LLM in Energy and Environmental Law, University of Birmingham
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