Climate change legislation may be on hold in Washington, but the greening of the global economy is not. Capital is mobilizing and investors worldwide are increasingly attuned to the opportunities created by the low-carbon imperative. Among the greatest potential beneficiaries of a low-carbon economy are American workers, but only if policymakers help workers develop the human capital to compete in the new energy economy.
Sadly, when it comes to helping America participate in these opportunities, U.S. policymakers have once again proven themselves a lagging indicator. To understand the scale of the challenge and opportunity, policymakers should look to the lessons learned during the information technology (IT) revolution of the 20th century.
Two important lessons emerged from the IT revolution: First, we learned that federal support for research - both basic and applied - plays a critical role in helping create new markets. Commercialization of federally-funded research (such as ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet) created a global IT market and unleashed enormous demand for the products, services and skills of the digital age.
The second critical lesson was that our education and workforce development system failed to create a sufficient supply of workers to match the demand created by new technology. This "talent deficit" required top domestic IT firms to hire high-skilled foreign workers during the 1990s. Importing talent boosted the incentives for foreign STEM students and accelerated the movement of high-tech companies out of the United States.
We must not repeat that mistake.
In addition to creating a predictable regulatory framework to grow the market for low-carbon products and services, the public and private sectors must take specific steps to help American workers obtain - and continuously improve - the skills necessary to compete. Streamlining the nation's workforce investment system is a crucial objective; at present it is an abject failure. In fact, federal legislation governing workforce development passed in 1998 - the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) - has never been reauthorized. Simplifying this system requires understanding our future workforce needs and pruning unnecessary or ineffective programs.
1) First, as part of the Administration's recently-announced Better Buildings Initiative, the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness (PCJC) should, in conjunction with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, immediately undertake a survey to quantify the skills, qualifications and certifications needed for low-carbon economy jobs. This could be modeled after the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) which has created a repository of information on how the world's largest companies are responding to climate change.
By quantifying low-carbon labor market data, policymakers at all levels can move more effectively to target workforce development resources and meet local labor market needs. Instead of the guesswork that underpins the current workforce investment system, we should use robust, data-driven processes to identify skill gaps and train workers.
2) Second, Congress should direct the National Academy of Sciences to undertake a 12-month study designed to assess the ability of our education system to meet the low-carbon economy challenge. We need a clearheaded, detailed understanding of the curricular and training needs of students and teachers. Vague, sweeping calls for more math and science education are not enough. Governors, college and university presidents, school boards, principals, and teachers need actionable intelligence to make sound curriculum and training decisions.
Workforce development is the catalyst for a virtuous cycle of economic growth. Talent drives innovation, which in turn drives growth, wealth creation, and jobs. Low-carbon industry jobs are particularly rich in potential. Unlike jobs in the IT sector, many low-carbon industry jobs (like energy auditors and HVAC retrofitters) are local by definition and may require only short-term retraining. As a result, taxpayer dollars for workforce development can be used more efficiently, businesses will have faster access to workers with the necessary skills, and workers will spend less time unemployed. But this all depends on understanding the challenges we face, and that clarity of vision requires detailed labor market data.
Climate change is accelerating, but so is the global transition to a low carbon economy. Though we have been slow to act thus far, there is a clear opportunity for U.S. leadership if we give our workers the skills necessary to seize it.
Marland Buckner is the founder of Global Strategic Partners LLC
(http://www.gsp-llc.com), a team of public policy and
political strategy consultants based in Washington, D.C., and focused on sustainability, innovation, and workforce development policy. Prior to founding Global
Strategic Partners, Buckner served for seven years as Director of Federal Government Affairs for Microsoft Corporation, and has held a variety of positions on
Capitol Hill, including Chief of Staff to Rep. Harold Ford, Jr.
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