To monitor progress against the just transition, Government should swiftly develop robust regional green jobs statistics (ideally at local authority level, at least for England), breakdowns of green jobs considering protected characteristics, and publish information about salary levels. |
496. Onward's 'Qualifying for the race to net zero' discusses the challenge of predicting and accurately measuring green jobs of the future:
"It is not possible to precisely predict which jobs will be created in the pursuit of decarbonisation, or what skills will be needed among the workers who fill them"357
497. The Review heard this challenge reinforced from a variety of players tasked with estimating, measuring, and reporting against the future skills requirement in net zero sectors. For example, the ONS set out the issues with defining a 'green job' in its 2021 article,358 which discussed the challenges of reaching an agreed definition of 'green' and evaluating how 'green' a specific job is in practice. In the second half of 2022, the ONS also ran a stakeholder engagement exercise on defining green jobs, the Review notes that the ONS will publish an official green jobs definition by early 2023, with experimental green jobs statistics to follow.
498. Alongside updated backward-looking green jobs statistics to reflect an improved definition, this Review recommends the ONS work with other organisations to deepen monitoring of the labour market impacts of net zero, particularly with regards to the just transition.
499. Industry made it clear to the Review that to invest confidently in the UK, clarity is required on both the pipeline of technology and the status of the skills pipeline. Options provided to the Review include:
• Government providing opensource regular national labour forecasts that recognise the interdependencies between different industries.
• Setting targets for future numbers of students in priority industries to provide early warnings on skills shortages.
• Government providing a forward plan for transitioning skilled workforces in large carbon intensive projects to green jobs.
500. In its Green Jobs report of 2021-2022, the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) recommended that by the end of 2021:
"The Government sets out how it will set out how it will measure progress towards its green jobs targets; this should include its definition of 'green jobs', and how it will measure the number, type and location of these over the 2020s, for the purpose of monitoring and evaluating the impact of its policies."359
501. While the Review recognises the limitations with anticipating the jobs and skills of the future economy, there is an ongoing need to continue to develop and publish data - which, even if imperfect, can support with the dialogue and further evidence development in this area.
502. Government should swiftly develop robust regional green jobs statistics (ideally at local authority level, at least for England), breakdowns of green jobs considering protected characteristics, and publish information about salary levels, to monitor progress against the just transition - reports on these through the climate data portal recommended in Pillar 1.