Strategic Focus: Mind The Climate Skills Gap
Alastair Foyn
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Executive Summary
The demand for climate-related skills exceeds the available supply, posing challenges for firms in terms of meeting climate requirements and implementing net zero strategies. A lack of expertise – and the limited size of dedicated teams – are hindering progress, with more job openings than qualified professionals. This shortage is exacerbated by the trade-off between climate expertise and corporate experience, geographical mismatch of talent pools, and misalignment between academic and corporate knowledge. To bridge the climate skills gap, firms can aggregate corporate and climate attributes when forming teams, establish prioritized hiring criteria, consider location challenges, target experienced hires from academic sources, and invest in training existing employees. By making these strategic adjustments, they can foster alignment between climate expertise and corporate experience, and build teams with the necessary skills and knowledge, capable of conducting increasingly rigorous climate-related activities.Many skilled climate professionals lack deep experience in corporate roles
Firms can clear the climate skills gap by adapting acquisition and training practices
Figure 2. Density of climate professionals
Figure 3. Career paths of senior climate employees
Figure 4. Pyramid of aggregated climate-related and corporate attributes for climate teams
About the Authors
Alastair Foyn
Analyst
Alastair is an Analyst in the Verdantix Net Zero & Climate Risk practice. His current research agenda focuses on carbon management software and decarbonization best practi...
Ryan Skinner
VP Research
Ryan is a VP Research at Verdantix, where he leads a team of analysts delivering research, data and advisory services that help clients navigate the fast-evolving landscape of...
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