There is an iron law of politics in the age of climate change: every time you discuss your plans to reach net zero you must also mention jobs, preferably an impressive-sounding number of them, ideally with terms like “well-paid”, “blue-collar” or “heartlands” attached.
Britain’s opposition leader, Keir Starmer, toed the line on Monday , promising his party’s green policies would create half a million “good” jobs.
“There’s so much interest in green jobs and everyone wants them… [but they] don’t seem to be materialising,” says Nesta’s Andrew Sissons. But policymakers haven’t sent decisive signals to the market to back up that target. They have sat on the fence about whether hydrogen could be a different option, which creates uncertainty about future demand.
Mr Sissons says the heat pump training course for gas engineers is only a few days long, but it still means taking time away from earning money, and they’re not sure of how much work they will get afterwards. A study published this year by the LSE’s Grantham Research Institute found that adverts for “low-carbon” job postings required higher skills than comparable occupations, but they were not necessarily better paid.
As the HGV driver shortage showed a few years ago, these problems can be fixed with the right market incentives and enough political will.
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