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management & education news

400,000 ENERGY JOBS MUST BE FILLED

TO HIT NET ZERO, SAYS REPORT

Grid is warning that 117,000 will need
to be filled within the next decade if
the UK is to meet its long-term, legally
NATIONAL GRID
binding climate targets.
“Britain reached a major milestone
last year as we saw zero carbon
electricity outstrip fossil fuels for the
first time – but there’s still a long way to
go,” National Grid’s Executive Director
Nicola Shaw said.
“As the pathway to net zero becomes
clearer, so must our understanding of
the jobs and skills we need to succeed.”
NATIONAL GRID WARNS THAT 117,000 ROLES Shaw said that while 400,000 may
WILL NEED TO BE FILLED IN THE NEXT DECADE seem a high number, it is “the tip of the
iceberg in terms of the wider impact of
MORE THAN 117,000 roles will need to that 140,000 workers across the UK’s net zero across other industries”.
be filled in the energy sector by 2030, low carbon energy workforce are due IGEM CEO Neil Atkinson said: “We
and a further 283,000 by 2050, if the UK to leave within the next 30 years – welcome this timely new report from
is to meet its net zero target, according meaning replacements will need to be National Grid, which highlights the
to a new report from National Grid. found – and that a further 260,000 roles sheer scale of the workforce challenge
Undertaken in partnership with will need to be created. ahead if the UK is to fulfil its 2050 net
Development Economics, work to National Grid’s analysis details how zero commitment.
develop the Building the Net Zero the staff in the 260,000 new roles will “The gas industry is entering an era
Energy Workforce report assessed be needed to build new low carbon of unprecedented change on its journey
how the ways in which energy is infrastructure, to upgrade existing low towards a decarbonised gas network.
generated, distributed and used carbon infrastructure, to complete The transition will require new job
will need to change in line with the retrofits and to decommission outdated roles and new skills across the board,
Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC) high carbon assets. from production and use of low carbon
recommendations on meeting net zero As for the 140,000 existing roles gases such as hydrogen, to carbon
by 2050, according to edie. that will need to be filled, the analysis capture, digitalisation and new heating
It then determined how skills and documents a spread across areas such solutions. Ensuring we reskill our
jobs in the energy sector would need as trade, R&D, manufacturing, logistics existing workforce and get on now with
to change to meet these shifts. The and engineering. attracting new talent will be critical to
key finding following this analysis is Of the 400,000 total roles, National the industry’s success.”

UKRI FUNDS £20M ACADEMIC CENTRE FOR INDUSTRIAL NET ZERO

UK RESEARCH AND INNOVATION academics, industry, policymakers and
(UKRI), which is running the £170 other stakeholders to develop plans,
million Industrial Strategy Challenge using a grant of £100,000 from the ISCF
fund to promote strategies to reduce Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge
emissions in industrial clusters, is Fund (ISCF), reports Network.
funding Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt Assuming the proposal is green-
University to develop plans for a new lit, the UKRI would then support the
academic centre geared to industrial project until 2024 with £20 million in
decarbonisation. grant funding from the same fund.
UKRI has also appointed The new centre will develop
Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer, of interdisciplinary research and
Heriot-Watt University, to develop innovation relating to the social and
a full proposal for the Industrial environmental challenges of switching
Decarbonisation Research and the UK’s industrial clusters to low
PROFESSOR MERCEDES Innovation Centre (IDRIC). carbon fuels in order to achieve the
MAROTO-VALER Maroto-Valer will work with government’s net zero ambitions.

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