‘400,000 need to be recruited for net zero emissions’

HUNDREDS OF thousands of people will need to be recruited into the energy sector to reach the goal to cut emissions to net zero by 2050, a report for National Grid shows.

The company said its study shows the need to fill 400,000 positions in skilled tradespeople, engineers and other specialists across the country as part of the UK’s legal targets to drive greenhouse gas emissions.

Many people across the UK do want jobs with an environmental purpose, according to research by YouGov, which found 78 per cent of people thought they should play a role in the UK’s journey to net zero. More than half of people are interested in working for an organisation helping to deliver on the goal.

But the energy industry is facing the challenges of a looming retirement crunch, stiff competition with other sectors such as tech and finance, not enough young people choosing science, technology, engineering and maths, and a lack of women in the sector.

Some 117,000 of the new workers need to be employed by the sector in the next decade to help meet key milestones up to 2050, National Grid said. New recruits will be needed to deliver projects such as offshore wind farms, technology to capture and store carbon emissions and enabling the grid to cope with more electric vehicles and heating.

Staff are needed for projects such as the London Power Tunnels, where National Grid has spent nearly £1bn upgrading the high voltage cable network that runs round the north of the capital.

The cables in new tunnels which run 32 metres (105 ft) below street level are updating the grid to channel power from wind farms off the coast and cope with extra demand from charging electric cars and low carbon heating.