According to research, India has the potential to generate up to 35 million green jobs by 2047 in both established and developing industries like renewable energy, waste management, electric vehicles, green building, and sustainable textiles.
According to the ‘Gearing Up the Workforce for a Green Economy’ report from the Skill Council for Green Jobs (SCGJ) and Sattva Consulting, with funding from JP Morgan, solar energy is expected to support 3.26 million jobs by 2050, followed by wind energy, which is anticipated to support 0.18 million jobs by 2030.
Furthermore, it is anticipated that by 2030, the bioenergy and green hydrogen industries will provide 0.27 million and 0.6 million green jobs, respectively.
The SCGJ defines “green jobs” as a group of occupations that directly benefit the environment and advance environmental welfare more generally. These are positions that aim to use or create renewable energy sources, conserve resources, assure energy-efficient methods, control waste management, and encourage sustainable development.
These positions work to strengthen public influence for environmental protection, facilitate education and training, and enforce rules.
The report goes on to say that through two interconnected strategies—leveraging the global demand for skilled human resources to help itself and other countries achieve net zero targets and ensuring just and well-managed transitions for labor in traditional industries that are affected as a result of these shifts—the country can take advantage of the promised green growth to create meaningful livelihoods.
The conclusions are based on discussions with more than 2,000 young people and over 85 industry executives, specialists, and members of the skills ecosystem.
Challenges
Although the need for new green employment is anticipated to increase, the research pointed out that the ecosystem supporting the development of the necessary skill sets is still in its infancy and picking up speed slowly.
Despite the efforts of more than 500 public and commercial training facilities, the report said that more candidates still need to be taught in order to achieve green growth at a quicker rate.
“Several structural issues need to be resolved in order to speed up skill-building activities. According to the research, these obstacles include a lack of policies for developing green skills, financing shortages, a lack of skill infrastructure, the marginalization of vulnerable populations, and a lack of cooperation among important actors.
In this study, 2,328 applicants from five metropolises were polled, and it was discovered that 83% of them had heard of “green” or climate-positive occupations. However, when questioned about particular career responsibilities in the industry or their understanding of skill-building programs for the same, this figure drastically decreased to 35 percent across all sectors.
The study identifies five “big bets” programs that might significantly increase the number of jobs available to people of low socioeconomic status. These include training the entry-level workforce, retraining the current workforce, encouraging entrepreneurship-led models, fostering diversity and inclusion, and ensuring formalization, protections, and working conditions for green jobs.
For instance, the report advises creating a network of charging stations and after-sales services run by female entrepreneurs in the EV industry. The necessity to upskill the current workforce throughout the whole solar value chain is also highlighted in order to satisfy the demand for a 12-fold increase in jobs.
