This article presents a comprehensive framework for understanding "green skills" - the capabilities needed to transition to an environmentally sustainable and socially just future. The authors argue that current approaches focusing mainly on STEM skills for green jobs are too narrow and need to be expanded.
The framework presented by the authors identifies three interconnected types of green skills:
1. Skills for Green Jobs: These are specific technical and professional capabilities needed for the green economy, including STEM skills, business skills, and project management. However, the authors argue we must expand beyond just STEM to include skills needed for the care economy (education, healthcare) which are vital for sustainability.
2. Green Life Skills: These are cross-cutting capabilities that help individuals adopt more sustainable behaviors and make greener decisions. They include critical thinking, leadership, communication, and problem-solving. The authors emphasize these skills must be developed with an understanding of how different groups are affected differently by climate change based on gender, race, and socioeconomic status.
3. Skills for Green Transformation: These are capabilities needed to transform underlying social and economic systems driving the climate crisis. They include systems thinking, political agency, coalition building, and the ability to analyze unequal power structures. The authors argue these transformative skills are essential for achieving climate justice. They note that at the time of writing, only four countries' NDCs (Nationally Determined Contributions) reference green skills that are transformative in nature: Barbados, the Marshall Islands, Namibia, and Tunisia.
The article draws on the example of Plan International’s ‘Youth Leadership in Climate Policy’ curriculum, in which adolescent learners are guided through a stakeholder mapping activity to better understand how different population groups in their country may be differently affected by climate change and/or differently impacted by and/or engaged in climate decision-making, depending on their location on two intersecting continuums of vulnerability and power. Such an exercise introduces learners not only to the concept of power and its fluidity, but also to how power can be held by and/or extended over certain populations in ways that can be empowering or harmful. Learners are then guided through an exercise to reflect on culturally appropriate ways of engaging with climate decision-makers in their home countries and of communicating key messages that can build trust and a coalition of actors committed to addressing underlying issues of climate justice that learners identified earlier in the curriculum.
There are several key recommendations for practitioners that arise from this article:
- It is vital to develop comprehensive green skills programs that integrate all three skill types, not just technical STEM skills
- Approaches that seek to transform gender inequalities should be incorporated into these programs to address structural barriers and gender norms
- We need to create safe spaces for learners to develop critical awareness of sustainability challenges
- Opportunities for collective action and system change, not just individual behavior change, should be provided
The Bottom Line
This article argues that current approaches to green skills development are too narrowly focused on STEM and technical capabilities. It presents a comprehensive framework comprising three interconnected types of green skills: specific technical skills for green jobs, cross-cutting green life skills for sustainable behavior, and transformative skills for systemic change. Drawing on feminist critical theory and examples like Plan International's Youth Leadership curriculum, the authors demonstrate how this broader conceptualization of green skills can better address both climate action and climate justice. The authors emphasize that achieving environmental sustainability requires not just technical expertise, but also the capabilities to understand and transform underlying social and economic systems. Their framework provides practical guidance for policymakers and practitioners to develop more holistic green skills initiatives that integrate gender empowerment and social justice alongside environmental goals.