LinkedIn's Global Talent Stocktake: Green Skills in Demand

The race to halt climate change will require nothing short of a complete overhaul of the status quo. Energy must become cleaner, transport must become greener, consumption must become leaner. It's not an overstatement to say that this change will demand more of every industry in the global economy.

It's all well and good demanding these actions, but we need people with the skills and knowledge to carry them out.

In a new report published by LinkedIn, the world's largest business and employment platform, data shows that employer demand for green talent is soaring.

The report, titled Global Climate Talent Stocktake, pulls data from across LinkedIn's network of over one billion users. Its findings show that sustainability is becoming the main driver of policymaking decisions as companies around the world look to slash their emissions and boost their ESG credentials.

The report concludes that, if trends continue as they are, the global demand for sustainability-savvy employees will be double the supply of qualified candidates by 2050. Here's the long and short of it — we urgently need a workforce that can deliver the change our planet needs.

Sue Duke, VP of Public Policy and Economic Graph at LinkedIn, explains the situation:

"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.”

The green skills gap: Country by country

LinkedIn's data provides plenty of insights on the situation. Firstly, it's clear that the green skills gap isn't uniform across countries. In certain regions the demand for green skills is particularly pronounced.

The United Kingdom leads the charge, with 13% of job postings requiring green skills, followed closely by Ireland (12.4%), Saudi Arabia (11.7%), Norway (11.6%) and Switzerland (11.5%).

Portugal has seen a very dramatic increase in the demand for green skills, with a staggering 71.3% rise in job postings between 2023 and 2024. The UK also saw an impressive growth of 46%, while Costa Rica, Singapore and Luxembourg experienced jumps of 40%, 27.1%, and 27%, respectively.

Yet, even as these countries surge ahead in green job creation, right now their workforces simply cannot keep pace. In the UK, the supply of green talent grew by only 5.3% during the same period, leaving the country with a pronounced shortfall.

This pattern repeats across many other countries, highlighting the urgent need for large investments in education and training.

Jobseekers — it pays to be green

For those with the right skills, the burgeoning green economy presents a world of opportunities. LinkedIn’s data shows that the hiring rate for green talent globally is a whopping 54.6% higher than the overall hiring rate. In the United States, this figure jumps to 80.3%.

The urgency is particularly acute in sectors such as renewable energy, where skills like solar power network design and green hydrogen expertise are in high demand. But it's not just highly conceptual scientific skills that are in demand, more practical engineering jobs are always available too.

Take the UK's relationship with heat pumps as an example. In 2021, the UK government targeted 600,000 installations of heat pumps in domestic and commercial properties annually. The country's progress on that goal has been dismal for a few reasons: the cost of the heat pumps, the cost of electricity, the poor heat efficiency of British houses.

But one of the main reasons has been a lack of engineers who know how to install heat pumps properly. Currently, there is a bottleneck in demand for plumbers that understand the new machines, so progress can't be achieved fast enough.

Countries are responding to these pressures by rapidly upskilling their workforces. In Germany, for instance, the number of workers acquiring skills in Green Hydrogen increased by 224.5% last year, while in the UK, workers developing skills in Decarbonisation and Responsible Sourcing saw growth of 1,818% and 498%, respectively. Brazil has also experienced significant growth, with skills related to Solar System Design increasing by 811%.

How policymakers can solve this issue

To bridge the gap between green talent demand and supply, governments have to intervene with smart policy decisions. Governments around the world now understand that reaching net zero depends on having a workforce that can deliver it.

LinkedIn's report really emphasises this point, stating that “climate policy developed in a silo is destined to fall short.” Collaboration between governments, educators and businesses is vital if we want to see measurable increases in green talent. This view was echoed at the COP28 summit, where world leaders agreed that human capital development must take centre stage in the climate transition.

This alignment of climate and workforce policy is particularly crucial as the world gears up for COP29, being held in Azerbaijan, later in 2024. At COP29 the focus on human capital will be stronger than ever. Leaders are expected to emphasise the need for cross-sector collaboration to build a global workforce capable of driving the green transition.

Melanie Nakagawa, CSO at Microsoft, will be one such leader attending the COP in November. She has thrown her weight behind the recommendations of LinkedIn's report, saying: "Addressing the green skills gap is an economic necessity and critical climate strategy."

"As the world works towards meeting ambitious climate targets, green skills will offer both a competitive advantage in an already competitive job market and will help us collectively move faster towards a more climate-resilient future."

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