A plan of action

It’s an ambitious agenda, one made more challenging given the state of public finances. Success will be contingent on putting in place the policies and incentives to translate ambition into action on the ground. The initial steps looks promising – changing planning guidance to make it easier to deploy onshore wind, as called for by IEMA, and the establishment of Mission Control led by the former CEO of the Climate Change Committee, Chris Stark, to break down barriers and accelerate progress on energy projects to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels.

A critical element of success will be ensuring we have a workforce with the skills, capacity and capability to deliver change at the pace and scale that is required. IEMA is working with a range of stakeholders to support the green jobs and green skills that are needed for success.

We’ve a special focus on green careers in this issue to highlight the opportunities from embedding green skills through technical qualifications, as well as insights into careers advice. Rachel Cooper and Beth Chaudhary explore how colleges such as Lancaster & Morecambe are growing the next generation of innovators and change agents.

“A critical element of success will be ensuring we have a workforce with the skills, capacity and capability to deliver change at the pace and scale that is required"

We also look into IEMA research that shows that 35% of careers professionals are less confident about offering guidance on green jobs compared with other career pathways, while only 4% of careers professionals rated young people’s understanding of green careers as “good”.

Lastly, it’s important to recognise that while the net-zero transition is positive for levels of employment overall, there is a need for a just transition for the communities and sectors that will be negatively affected.