Putting green skills to the fore at COP28

In the August/September edition of Transform, I wrote about a green skills campaign that IEMA has been running in the lead into COP28.

As a reminder, the campaign is focused on ensuring that the negotiations taking place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) effectively recognise the need to invest in and develop a global workforce that can tackle climate change.

The institute believes this will be best achieved if the COP28 cover text – the high-level record of the decisions that will be reached at the negotiations – mandates signatories to the Paris Agreement to include a detailed education and skills investment and development roadmap as part of their national strategies to tackle climate change. This is currently not a requirement.

IEMA has written a letter to the UK’s energy minister, Graham Stuart, pressing him and the UK’s delegation to COP28 to champion our campaign to key decision-makers and stakeholders in attendance in the UAE.

The letter was co-signed by several of IEMA’s corporate partners, influential professional bodies, plus key business and interest groups. We hope our calls are heard and that the UK puts the green skills transition front and centre of its efforts during COP28.

IEMA will be represented at COP28 by Sarah Mukherjee MBE and Martin Baxter (IEMA CEO and deputy CEO, respectively). They will be speaking about our campaign aims at a range of events during the negotiations.

The institute will be hosting a webinar on 13 December exploring the outcomes of COP28. To sign up and to find out more, visit www.bit.ly/COP28webinar