Yesterday eBay announced the company is trimming 500 jobs and Zoom followed with an announcement of 1,300 job cuts. The day before, Dell said it is cutting 6,650 positions. Those announcements followed similar moves in recent weeks by tech stalwarts like Google, Intel, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, PayPal, and more. However, as one employment door slams shut for tech jobs, another, greener one is opening.
Barely into the second week of the year, 313 companies worldwide have shelved over 97,000 technical jobs, according to Layoffs.fyi. And the number keeps rising. Layoffs.fyi tracks tech layoffs in real-time.
During the pandemic, demand for tech products and services soared as more people worked remotely. As a result, tech companies engorged themselves with staff. However, as life and the economy returned to normal, some of those hires proved to be excess to requirements. Nonetheless, most tech companies have a much larger workforce today than they did a few years ago..
Though there is much hand-wringing over the tech job cuts, the future for such careers is still a rosy one.
Climate Change Meets Tech Job Change
Recent layoffs and rising concern over climate change are forming the perfect storm for tech workers to pivot their careers.
In a report entitled “Working toward net zero”, Deloitte found that over 800 million jobs worldwide “are highly vulnerable to climate extremes and the economic transition to net zero”.
On the flip side, Deloitte points out that “with coordinated and rapid decarbonization and the right policies in place, more than 300 million additional Green Collar jobs can be created by 2050”.
As a result, there are growing opportunities for tech workers and investors in what Deloitte has dubbed “green collar” jobs.
Paris Climate Accord
One of the focus areas of climate change is energy.
In December 2015, the United States committed along with almost 200 other countries committed to the Paris Climate Agreement. That accord seeks to keep the planet’s temperature from rising more than two degrees Celsius. That would be done by reducing emissions and adopting renewable energy.
Some political conservatives and business interests with a large carbon footprint lambasted the agreement. One of their main criticisms was that the accord would result in job losses. In fact, President Donald Trump announced a little more than a year after the U. S. commitment, that the country would withdraw from the plan. However, America was back in when President Joe Biden came into office.
So, in summary: we were in; we were out; now we are back in.
Energy Jobs To Boom
In fact, jobs in energy will increase under the Paris Agreement more than they would if the U.S. ignored the accord, according to a report published in Science Direct’s One Earth.
“We find that, by 2050, energy sector jobs would grow from today’s 18 million to 26 million under a WB2C (Well Below 2 degrees Celsius) scenario compared with 21 million under the current policy scenario”, states the report. “Fossil fuel extraction jobs would rapidly decline, but losses will be compensated by gains in solar and wind jobs, particularly in the manufacturing sector (totaling 7.7 million in 2050).”
Follow the Money
As major economic shifts occur, there are usually companies that fail to keep pace due to a lack of funding. However, billions of dollars from public and private sources may reduce that risk.
In less than two years, the U.S. has passed three laws that provide over $500 billion in spending for climate change and clean energy.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; CHIPS and Science ACT; and Inflation Reduction Act will more than triple environmental spending over the next ten years, according to the World Economic Forum.
In addition to government spending venture capitalists are also sinking money into climate change ventures.
Over $64 billion in new money was raised by venture capital funds last year through November, according to CTVC.
PwC’s third annual State of Climate Tech report finds a greater need for investment in the field. However, it also notes progress in raising capital to meet the challenge.
A 2020 PwC paper found eight in 10 investors planned to increase their investment in ESG products over the following two years. In addition, in its current report, PwC finds evidence to support growing investor interest in a green economy.
“In fact, climate tech investment in the 12 months to Q3 2022 represented more than a quarter of every venture dollar invested,” reports PwC, “a greater proportion than 12 of the prior 16 quarters.”
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