Brian further argued: “We should stop thinking about creating jobs that can generate growth, we should create jobs that help the green transition. The new demand will come and will create new jobs, but we might face the problem of not having skilled and flexible workforce to adapt to this demand.” Statistics from the recent International Labour Organization report support this view. The report estimates that 24 million new jobs worldwide, accounting 2 million for Europe, will be created by 2030 if the right polices to promote a greener economy are put in place. Re-skilling has become a buzz word, an antidote for all challenges that our modern society faces today due to the technological development. Remarkably, the process of transitioning towards a green economy seems to be a sustainable job creator. However, there are few concrete proposals on how to ensure the workforce can foster the green transition. “We proposed to set-up a just transition fund to get people on board for this transition, unfortunetly it didn’t reach the politicians ear,” Benjamin Denis, Energy Policy Adviser from the European Confederation of Trade Unions informed the gathering. “This transition requires also solidarity to close the geographical gap of job losses and gains across Europe,” further underlined Benjamin. Juliane Marie Neiiendam, Chair of Labour Affairs Committee in the Danish Society of Engineers stressed the importance of extending transition processes beyond the Nordic region. “Exporting Nordic knowhow is the way to closing the geographical gap and attracting new workforce. By using the knowledge of our members, we have created energy scenarios that are based on a cost efficient green transition that leads to jobs and export potentials. This is also our way to engage and inform our engineers.” Juliane outlined that through engineering members’ expertise, decision makers can be presented with viable scenarios on how to ensure new jobs within the new green technologies. However, Pyry Niemi, Chairman of the Committee for Growth and Development in the Nordic Council pointed out that politicians were not sufficiently “well educated” about the energy efficiency and energy resources mix. This sometimes led to wrong financing decisions. He suggested that the energy sector should be more market oriented and in the Nordic region, countries should better cooperate when it comes to energy surpluses.
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