The Policy Brief “Empowering people with green skills for climate compatible growth: Key Recommendations for LMICs” is published today. It was written by Pu Yang, Stephanie Hirmer and Mathias Weidinger and you can read it here.
This policy brief addresses the important role that the formation of green skills plays for low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as they transition to a low-carbon economy.
Key challenges in this regard include ambiguous definitions for “green” skills and jobs, and a lack of reliable data to tally them. As a result, transition pathways for fossil fuel workers remain largely uncertain and education systems planning does not yet widely consider the skill demands of a net-zero carbon future.
Here, we draw from case studies to gain insights about best practices when it comes to: 1 Re- and up-skilling fossil fuel workers 2 Endowing new and future entrants to the workforce with skillsets suitable for the green transition, and 3 leveraging novel data to broaden the evidence base for just and inclusive, pro-poor green growth.
The Policy Brief highlights several challenging areas including Wage Disparity and Gender Inequality. Gender representation in green jobs remains uneven. As of 2021, women accounted for only 21% of the wind energy workforce, which is slightly lower than the 22% representation in the oil and gas industry and significantly below the economy-wide representation of 46%. Furthermore, within the wind/solar sector, women are disproportionately concentrated in administrative roles, with significantly lower representation in technical and non-administrative positions. These data indicate a pronounced gender gap across energy sectors, suggesting systemic barriers to female participation.
To combat this, targeted interventions are essential. A notable example of an initiative bridging this gap is the international Solar Programme by Barefoot College, which focuses on training women, particularly from rural areas, to become solar panel installers. This programme equips women with technical skills, while also offering them economic and social benefits through job opportunities in the renewable energy sector.
The ‘Solar Mamas’ programme at Barefoot College received media coverage in The Guardian earlier this year. Read the article.