Axios House at COP28: The Global Green Workforce

The big picture: The clean energy industry workforce is booming with new jobs as governments become more focused on lowering carbon emissions and creating incentives for companies.

Government leaders and climate experts convened at Axios House at COP28 in Dubai on Dec. 5 to look at ways to continue encouraging the growth of green jobs and the economy.

The details: Axios senior climate reporter Andrew Freedman and 1 big thing host/editor Niala Boodhoo hosted wide-ranging conversations with former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, U.S. deputy energy secretary David Turk, and Kenya Meteorology Department principal scientist Dr. Joyce Kimutai.

Gore called out COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber for trying to "mansplain" to former Irish President Mary Robinson about fossil fuels:

• "By the way, do not ever try to mansplain to Mary Robinson it doesn't work…That was in the sentence where he said, 'I am the man in charge.'"

Gore also shared his thoughts on the fossil fuel industry's approach to direct air capture:

• "...Direct air capture, that's a really hilarious technology. And again, it is always possible that there will be a break and I support robust research. Really and truly, we got to…throw everything we've got at this crisis. The future of our species depends upon it…So yeah, I support research, but there is a big difference between a research program and a deceptive lie to publics around the world that this is ready to go and what it means is we can keep burning fossil fuels forever. Isn't it obvious what's happening? Do they take us for fools?"

Turk responded to the leaked draft of Treasury Department rules for hydrogen tax credits:

• "We try to run a very tight ship. So I'm incredibly disappointed that someone leaked this document. I can't comment on this document, but we're still working to deliberate and put the final package together."

Catch up quick: The leaked draft is the center of fights between industry and environmental lobbying groups.

Turk also highlighted the importance of developing green jobs:

• "…We need to have such a transformation in our country. Speaking here at the climate conference, we've got to fundamentally transform our energy economy, which is where the bulk of our emissions come from, not just electricity, where we're making some progress, but transportation industry buildings across the board. And we've got to get to net zero in just a short couple decade period of time. And so we're going to need to have a lot of jobs. We're going to need to be thinking ahead of the workforce piece of it."

Dr. Kimutai highlighted the growing job field of attribution science:

• "I've seen many scientists being very interested in this. I remember when it started…it was really difficult for many scientists to see or to understand how we could, for example, attribute a specific extreme events to climate change. But over time, with a sort of improvement of the methods, there's really been sort of the gravitation towards coming to this field because of the importance that this field has actually…It's been very fascinating."

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LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue detailed how the green jobs market is booming and how it compares to the oil and gas industry:

• "Hiring for renewables for green jobs is actually 24% higher…outstripping all these other industries. So it's actually an amazing place to be."
• "It's almost like a mirror image. Rise in renewable energy, rise in green and climate jobs, reduction in oil and gas jobs. But I will say, we've got to keep this in mind, the oil and gas industry still is about five times bigger than renewable energy in terms of the total number of people employed. So there is a ways to go."

Thank you to LinkedIn for sponsoring this event.