By Kasturi Nathan
A new report released by the Deloitte Economics Institute highlights the potential rise of a new Green Collar workforce in the Asia Pacific region, estimating that 80% of skills needed for energy transition efforts in the short-to-medium term already exists in today’s workforce.
However, 40% of these workers are currently employed in industries that are under threat from climate change and the transition to net
zero.
The report “Work Towards Net Zero in Asia Pacific – The Rise of the Green Collar Workforce in a Just Transition”, presents Deloitte’s Green Collar workforce policy agenda, and demonstrates how governments can lead the way in tackling the climate crisis, while increasing resilience of those most vulnerable and ensuring equitable employment outcomes.
Climate inaction is the greatest threat to job security
Through its Job Vulnerability Index, Deloitte estimates that 40% of workers in Asia Pacific, including economies like Malaysia, are employed in vulnerable industries such as agriculture, conventional energy, manufacturing, transportation, and construction.
The recent 55th Asean Economic Ministers’ Meeting also highlighted that unchecked climate change could lead to the displacement of as many as 87 million people in flood-prone geographies across Southeast Asia including Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.
On the flip side, leveraging on the energy transition and pursuit for carbon neutrality could generate between 46 and 66 million new job opportunities for the region.
Asia Pacific’s unique position
Compared to the rest of the world, Asia Pacific countries face double the risk of being highly exposed to the impacts of climate change.
While the wider Asia Pacific region has the most to lose from inaction on climate change, it also has much to gain from investments in green innovation and decarbonisation.
With abundant natural, human, and technological capital, the region is uniquely positioned to capitalise on growth opportunities and job creation.
The Asia Pacific region boasts a strong pool of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent, with significant employment growth in the renewable energy sector.
Reaching net-zero in less than thirty years will take nothing short of an industrial revolution and new types of work are required to achieve this.
These occupations are set to meet fresh labour demand in transitioning and newly formed industries, in the wake of the tilt towards renewables.
For example, renewable energy transition is causing a green job boom in Asia Pacific, with almost two-thirds of the world’s new renewable energy-related jobs set to come from Asia.
Supporting the rise of the new Green Collar workforce
Encouragingly, the Malaysian government has taken steps to support the development of the emerging “Green Collar workforce” through Phase 1 of the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR).
The NETR represents Malaysia’s efforts to future-proof its vulnerable sectors by accelerating the shift from a traditional fossil fuel-based economy to a high-value green economy.
Through the NETR, 10 flagship catalyst projects and initiatives are expected to generate a total of 23,000 new high-impact, high-quality job opportunities.
These projects, some of which comprise public-private partnerships, span a wide ambit of energy transition levers, namely energy efficiency, renewable energy, hydrogen, bioenergy, green mobility as well as carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS).
A regional study by the International Labour Organisation conducted in 2021 also found that Malaysia had “significant policy elements in place” to support the development of green jobs.
The study found that these policies touched on pertinent areas, including industrial and sector policies, as well as enterprise policies and initiatives, placing the country in a strong regional position.
Ensuring a just transition through public policy
The World Economic Forum said that policy, investment choices, and business practices will determine if workers, companies, and economies will either be stranded or thrive following the energy transition.
As highlighted in Deloitte’s report, public policy must step up to protect vulnerable industries, communities, and workers through a proactive, just, and coordinated net zero transition.
To this end, the Deloitte Economics Institute has developed a Green Collar workforce policy framework which sets out the key policy agenda items that policymakers should prioritise:
- Set ambitious decarbonisation targets that are aligned with latest climate science and investments in rapid decarbonisation.
- Design new strategic industrial policy, targeting traditional strengths and new areas of economic growth.
- Create high-value jobs for transition pathways that establishes secure career pathways for workers and graduates.
- Ensure an adaptive skills and education pipeline that aligns to industry demands for the transition.
- Target workforce policies that promote labour mobility to direct skills to where they are needed.
The energy transition will call for the restructuring of human capital norms with the advent of a new generation of Green Collar workers. The Malaysian government has clearly recognised these trends by presenting high-level frameworks to chart the nation’s future in a decarbonised global economy.
Moving forward, the government has to ensure a holistic approach with concerted implementation undertaken by federal and state governments as well as industry players to navigate omnipresent climate risks and subsequently, effectively pivot and reap the benefits of a just energy transition.
Kasturi Nathan is the Governance, Regulatory and Sustainability Services Leader of Deloitte Malaysia. The above views are her own.
