Strategic Focus: Mind The Climate Skills Gap

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.