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Global demand for 'green skills' significantly outstripping supply, professional networking platform finds
Demand for green skills is booming in job markets all around the world, but the supply of professionals with the requisite sustainability skills is struggling to keep pace and could put global efforts to meet climate goals at risk.
That is the stark warning contained in a major new report from social media platform LinkedIn, which warns that based on current trends roughly half of green jobs would lack qualified candidates by mid-century unless the existing workforce is upskilled to meet the demands of fast-expanding green industries.
The latest edition of LinkedIn's Global Climate Talent Stocktake, published today, claims governments and businesses must double the size of the green talent pool by 2050 - at a bare minimum - to tackle the worsening skills gaps.
The report reveals a modest 0.4 percentage point increase in the share of job postings requiring so-called "green skills" - defined as those that directly combat the effects of climate change - to 7.7 per cent.
But it also confirmed demand for green talent is highest in the UK, where 13 per cent of advertised roles require at least one green skill, compared to 12.4 per cent in Ireland, and around 11 per cent in each of Saudi Arabia, Norway, and Switzerland.
The report also highlights how demand for green skills grew most significantly in Portugal last year, with the share of jobs requiring at least one green skill surging by 71.3 per cent, compared to a 46 per cent increase in the UK.
Overall, global demand for green talent increased by 11.6 per cent last year, but the supply of candidates with green skills only increased by 5.6 per cent. LinkedIn said that if the trend continued to widen at current rates then by 2050 there would be twice as many green roles advertised as there would be qualified candidates to fill them.
Sue Duke, vice president of public policy and economic graph at LinkedIn, said the skills crunch presented a real threat to global climate action. "Every climate goal around the world, every commitment made, is at risk if we don't have a workforce that can deliver the change we urgently need," she said. "The economic opportunity is there and a promising skills-based pathway exists."
The findings follow repeated warnings from industry groups that key green industries such as renewables, electric vehicles, and heat pumps are struggling to fill vacancies. Just this week, the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA) launched a new international campaign calling on governments to use the upcoming COP16 Biodiversity Summit and the COP29 Climate Summit to revitalise efforts to tackle worsening green skills shortages across the global economy.
LinkedIn's report also highlights how those professionals that have developed green skills are now in huge demand and are more likely than other candidates to secure employment. The company said the green hiring rate is 54.6 per cent greater than the overall hiring rate, with the UK recording a hiring rate for green talent that is 72 per cent higher than the rate for talent overall.
Even in countries where demand for green talent has seen recent declines, LinkedIn found green talent hiring rates continue to exceed the average. In Finland and the Netherlands, where between 2023 and 2024 the share of job postings requiring at least one green skill dropped 43.8 and 20.1 per cent, respectively, green talent is still more than twice as likely as other talent to be hired.
The report suggested that increasing investment in renewable energy and corporate efforts to cut carbon emissions from supply chains are driving more workers to develop relevant skills. For example, it observed the greatest year-on-year increases in skills adoption were found in water and wastewater design in Germany, where the talent pool rose 391 per cent, while hazard mitigation skills in Brazil rose 264 per cent, and there was a 144 rise in vertical farming skills in the US.
In the renewable energy field, solar-related skills make up five of the 10 fastest-growing sustainable energy skills globally, with the largest increase for solar system design skills in Brazil - up 811 per cent year-on-year.
Moreover, in the US, the number of workers adding building performance skills grew more than 80-fold in a year while the UK has seen a 5,149 per cent in the adoption of similar skills, a 1,818 per cent rise in decarbonisation training, and a 498 per cent rise in responsible sourcing skills.
However, Duke warned governments and businesses needed to do more to support the expansion of the green skills base. "This year is an inflection point for our planet - and for workers - as countries and companies write new climate commitments; they must include explicit investments in the green workforce," she said.
The company called on governments to ensure the national climate action plans - or Nationally Determined Contributions in the UN jargon - that they are due to submit under the Paris Agreement early next year should include bold plans to build a climate workforce that can deliver a whole-of-economy transformation.
Additionally, LinkedIn called on governments to declare workers as enablers of climate ambition at the upcoming COP29 Climate Summit in Baku and signal that investments in people are essential if the world is to meet targets to triple renewable energy production, double energy efficiency, and achieve collective climate goals.
"We simply can't get there without a global workforce empowered with the skills to get it done," the report stated. "An official COP declaration could help galvanize the cross-sector solutions necessary to ensure that skills development takes its rightful place centre-stage in the climate change narrative."
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