Report: Cities’ Climate Plans Fail to Include Workforce Development

Cities around the country are implementing climate action plans, but many omit a crucial component: a green workforce, writes Kery Murakami in Route Fifty.

This isn’t the case across the board, Murakami notes. “Los Angeles, for instance, has set a target of creating 400,000 green jobs by 2050 through partnerships with colleges and universities and by funding startups.” An initiative called Hire LA has provided 913 young adults with green jobs since 2019. And Denver has set aside $40 million per year for emissions reduction efforts, including a ‘green economy’ summer academy for high school students.

But cities like Los Angeles, Denver, and Cincinnati, which all have green workforce development goals, are the exception to the rule. According to research from Brookings, “Forty-seven of the 50 city climate plans examined by the think tank’s researchers mentioned the importance of training workers, but did so ‘only in passing.’” Most did not examine how workforce development would be funded. “Since most cities’ climate plans are not detailed, the report said that it’s not surprising that “they also do not say what their goals are or when they are hoping to reach them.”