Britain could gain between 135,000 and 725,000 jobs from the energy transition with the right policy, planning and skills programs in place by 2030, according to a new report from the government’s Energy Security and Net Zero committee.
The report ‘Workforce planning to deliver clean, secure energy’ states that the UK energy transition will create ‘winners and losers’ among the workforce as energy sector companies shift their activities from fossil fuels to low carbon technologies, but that there is room for ‘smart policies and spending’ to seize opportunities.
Minister of Energy in October Ed Miliband announced the Clean Energy Jobs Planwith the aim of making Britain “the winner in the global clean energy jobs race”. The plan introduced a range of measures across employment, regional powers and workers’ rights, along with £1.2 billion per year to support skills development.
The report highlighted the importance of transitioning skills from traditional energy sectors to the fast-growing clean energy economy. It said the government must “address barriers that prevent existing energy sector workers from making a successful transition”. Most strikingly, oil and gas workers in the North Sea have become an emblem of the impact of the energy transition on employment. Trade union Unite recently cited the government’s future plans for the North Sea for workers ‘tinkering around the edges’, lacking a reliable skills transition.
The report from the Energy Security and Net Zero committee said that “many of the skills of the existing workforce in the energy, engineering and construction sectors are highly transferable”, and called on the government to expand skills passports and related funding to enable skills transfer between sectors. It also called for “tangible workforce transition and support targets” and measures to “leverage UK manufacturing content requirements where possible”.
The government’s Clean Energy Industries Plan, published earlier this year, states that the solar PV and storage industries are “vital” for the country’s industrial transitionin addition to frontier industries such as wind energy, nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage. Great British Energy, the government’s state-backed renewable energy company, has been allocated £700 million to produce clean energy in the UK.
The UK may need to import “specific skills” from abroad in the short term to achieve low-carbon economy targets, the committee argued.
The report also called for more power for devolved governments and measures to transition local workers. “National workforce planning will need to be delivered outside Whitehall,” the report said, saying that implementing workforce changes could look different in different local circumstances. It said these differences should be taken into consideration “while providing both consistent quality in career pathways, standards and training and transferability of skills between UK countries.”
This is evident from figures from big-four consultancy PwC Scotland led the UK in clean energy jobs from November 2024.
In its Clean Energy Jobs Plan, released after the committee report finished collecting evidence, the government announced unspecified funding for Local Net Zero Hubs to identify clean energy skills and jobs across local authorities. It also announced £2.5 million in funding over the 2025-2026 period for regional programs in Cheshire, Lincolnshire and Pembrokeshire to support clean energy jobs.
