Climate Jobs in Demand

ON AN UNUSUALLY sunny winter afternoon, just a few hours after we landed in Auckland last month, we took a stroll around the city's Central Business District.

It had been four years since our family of three had last visited home here and so we were eager to hit the streets and relish the familiarity. We were filled with dismay and somewhat taken aback as not one single eatery was open to serve. Not even a hole-in-the-wall cafe! The pandemic, we learnt, had scathed the local economy, forcing small shop owners and restaurants to shut shop out of fear of the soaring Covid cases, equally fast-rising crime rate, in the absence of tourists, and residents who now prefer to stay-in more than ever before.

However, the New Zealand government has a plan. Renewable energy will play a key role in the country's Covid-19 economic recovery. Roughly 84 per cent of the electricity in New Zealand is already produced from renewable sources. But New Zealand's goal is to have 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030. Additionally, the country hopes to have net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Now the Labour Party-led government in New Zealand sees the pandemic as an opportunity to invest in more renewable energy in order to create more jobs. The Labour Party plans to develop more high-skill jobs that need expertise in developing renewable energy infrastructure and believes this will immediately boost the Covid hit economy, reduce electricity bills, benefiting New Zealanders living in challenging economic conditions, who have lost the most in the pandemic, and also help the country prepare for the future. It is estimated that renewable energy could create almost NZ$165 trillion in global GDP gains by 2050.