- Formal negotiations
- Finance
- Global review
- Global report
- Digital sequence information
- Harmful subsidies
- Marine biodiversity
- Planning, monitoring, reporting and review
- Article 8(j) implementation
- Biodiversity and climate change
- Links with other bodies
- Around the COP
- Armenian presidency
- Protests
- Lobbying and influence
- Carbon and biodiversity markets
Vaishali Nigam Sinha is co-founder and chairperson for sustainability at ReNew, a leading Indian provider of decarbonisation solutions.
India has emerged as a renewable energy superpower in the Global South in recent years, with record auctioning of nearly 70 gigawatts taking place in the last financial year. This rapid expansion is set to continue, with new capacity additions expected to double by 2026, surpassing the pace of many major economies.
The recently announced Union Budget from the Indian government further accelerates the country’s energy transition, with strong support for clean tech manufacturing. It sets a target of 10,000 fellowships, including research positions in India, to lead in sustainable energy.
Additionally, the focus on women’s empowerment – whether through expanded credit schemes for women entrepreneurs or enhanced participation in economic activities – demonstrates a commitment to inclusive growth.
Ambitious renewable energy targets demand a skilled workforce, but there remains work to do, with only 10% of our youth currently receiving formal or informal training for emerging green jobs, meaning we are facing a significant “green skills gap”. If left unattended, this gap threatens to impede progress toward climate goals. By improving women’s representation in India’s green workforce, we can bridge this gap, whilst ensuring the energy transition is just and inclusive.
Women behind in clean energy roles
Demand for green jobs is soaring globally, particularly in sectors such as renewable energy, waste management, energy efficiency, and climate adaptation. The International Renewable Energy Agency predicts that the global renewable energy sector will require a workforce of 38 million by 2030, more than triple the 12 million employed in 2020.
In India, the renewables sector currently employs 1.02 million people, with the potential to add 3.4 million new jobs by 2030 – but the current skills deficit could hinder India’s ability to meet its climate and clean energy commitments.
Weak gender focus at COP29 risks leaving women behind in greener future
While challenging, this context presents a huge opportunity to redress gender disparity in India’s workforce. Looking specifically at the renewable energy sector, women make up an average of 32% of the global workforce, but the proportion is significantly lower in India, at 11%. This gap is even starker when we examine women involved in roles such as operations and commissioning: women make up only around 1% of the workforce in operations and maintenance, and less than 3% in construction and commissioning.
The existing gender gap is reflective of broader structural inequalities that have historically limited women’s participation in the energy and technology industries. If these trends persist, India’s energy transition risks excluding a substantial portion of its population from its burgeoning green sector.
Ensuring a just transition
Women’s inclusion in the green economy is essential for creating a just and sustainable transition. Diverse workforces are proven to foster innovation and drive better business outcomes. Women’s participation in the energy transition can bring new perspectives and solutions to the complex challenges of climate change.
At ReNew, we are focusing on building a clean energy system that benefits all. Through our work, we are ensuring access to affordable clean energy in remote areas while reducing carbon emissions and promoting the socio-economic empowerment of women and children.
ReNew’s Project Surya, developed in collaboration with UNEP and SEWA, is training up to 1,000 women working in rural salt-pan marshes to be solar pump technicians, demonstrating the potential to lift women out of poor working conditions and low pay, and into a modern, geographically representative clean energy workforce. By empowering women and rural communities with the skills and opportunities to participate in the green economy, India can ensure that its energy transition benefits everyone.
Expanding women’s participation in green jobs also helps address broader gender inequality in India. While fast-growing, only around 33% of women are engaged in the workforce as of 2023. By creating targeted programmes that promote women’s inclusion in green industries, India can both close the employment gender gap and unlock an economic potential of $770 billion by 2025.
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Government strategies
Government policies play a critical role in bridging the green skills gap. Over the years, the Indian government has focused various programmes on social opportunities around the transition, prioritising green jobs and skills, enhancing working conditions, and supporting impacted communities.
Through the Green Skill Development Program, the government has committed to training 7 million youth in the environment, forestry, and climate change sectors and the Skill Council for Green Jobs alone has trained over 100,000 workers as of FY22 for the clean energy workforce.
The government has also focused on deploying gender-specific strategies for improving women’s representation in the sector through initiatives such as the Women’s Empowerment Scheme and the Decentralised Renewable Energy Policy.
Plant engineers at ReNew’s solar manufacturing plant in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India (Photo: ReNew)
Incentives for business
Businesses and policymakers can support the green transition in India by prioritizing and upskilling the female population. Measures could include providing incentives for businesses that invest in new or adapted green skills training programmes, with a focus on gender inclusion. Starting at the root will ensure meaningful progress is made.
We will be passing the torch to future generations to continue progressing the green transition, and fostering a future green workforce will be key. ReNew’s Lighting Lives initiative powers schools with limited access to electricity, enabling more effective learning, and ensures environmental studies are included in curriculums. By empowering younger generations with the skills needed, we can help to ensure a demographically inclusive future workforce.
India’s green skills gap presents both a challenge and an opportunity. By addressing this gap through targeted education, training and initiatives, India can ensure that it meets its climate goals and builds a robust green economy. However, this transition must be inclusive -particularly for women, who are at present under-represented in the energy sector. By implementing policies and frameworks that focus on inclusion and participation, India can create a just and equitable energy transition that benefits all.
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India can plug its green skills gap by elevating women in the workforce
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Prepared by a coalition of nine Western Australian union, industry, conservation, and community organisations—including UnionsWA, the Conservation Council WA, and the Smart Energy Council—the WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan provides a practical roadmap to transform Western Australia into a clean energy powerhouse while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
Western Australia stands at a pivotal crossroads: lead the global clean energy economy or watch investment, future industries, and secure jobs go elsewhere. The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan outlines a transformative blueprint to harness the state’s world-class solar and wind resources. Discover how legislated renewable targets, green iron manufacturing, and a dedicated regional training strategy can generate tens of thousands of local jobs, lower household bills, and build a resilient, net-zero future for all Western Australians.
WA needs a clear and forward-thinking plan if it is going to become a competitive renewable energy powerhouse and maintain its economic strength through the energy transition.
“Western Australians know a faster renewable energy transition will lower their household expenses and prevent harmful climate pollution. But the community also needs clear direction to ensure this transition will create jobs, lower costs and not cause undue environmental harm.
“Here, sectors representing a broad range of interests have laid the groundwork for those outcomes, clearly outlining what is needed to create a future for WA that is good for the environment, for the climate, for workers and for the economy.
Summary
The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan sets out a strategic roadmap to position Western Australia as a global clean energy superpower while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
The report establishes three overarching goals:
- Creating local employment.
- Maintaining industrial competitiveness.
- Lowering household energy costs
To realize this vision, the framework details actionable measures to follow on from the recent WA Government announcement of a 75% Renewable Energy Target by 2031 for the South West Interconnected System. This includes developing a statewide Renewable Energy Target, coordinating statewide workforce and training pipelines, strategically planning regional infrastructure to safeguard high-value biodiversity and cultural heritage, and ensuring equitable benefit-sharing through household electrification incentives and First Nations equity partnerships. Ultimately, the plan highlights that establishing clear policy and regulatory certainty will unlock lower energy bills, boost power reliability, and secure the state’s global competitiveness in emerging green commodity export markets.
Key Findings
- Statewide Renewable Energy Target and Emissions Reduction Targets: The report calls for a statewide RET and 1.5°C aligned emission reduction targets to remove policy risk, lower capital costs, and attract clean energy investment.
- Transformative Job Creation: Accelerating the transition offers massive employment prospects, including up to 8,800 solar and battery jobs by 2050, as well as 24,000 ongoing and 11,000 construction jobs in a commercial green iron industry.
- Industrial Electrification & Competitiveness: Requiring large gas users to adopt binding electrification timetables and providing concessional financing will protect existing energy-intensive manufacturers from rising energy costs and impending domestic gas shortfalls.
- Green Commodity Export Leadership: Western Australia can build new export markets in green iron, green ammonia, and offshore oil/gas decommissioning by constructing shared common-user infrastructure and setting dedicated Green Commodity Export Targets.
- Coordinated Workforce & Training Pipeline: To address critical skill shortages the plan recommends establishing a WA Clean Energy Jobs Plan 2050, three regional training hubs, and dedicated pathways for female and under-represented apprentices.
- Environmental Safeguards & Community Benefits: Fast-tracked development must be paired with State Planning Policies that avoid high-biodiversity and cultural heritage lands, mandate new data centres to run on additional renewable power, and deliver household electrification rebates and First Nations equity partnerships.
What you can do
WA has an opportunity to lead on sustainable, clean energy and associated industries. You can help by:
- Sending an email to Environment Minister Murray Watt and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling on them to reject Browse.
- Sharing this story to help more Australians understand what’s at stake.
- Encouraging your friends and family to take action.
Countries have completed the first “global review” of their progress towards reversing nature loss by 2030 at the COP17 biodiversity talks in Yerevan, Armenia.
The review “notes with deep concern” that, unless action is “rapidly accelerated”, the goal to reverse nature loss and meet a set of 23 targets by 2030 “will not be achieved”.
It “urges” countries to accelerate action, including by “increased ambition in addressing the gaps”.
Much of the discussions in Yerevan focused on how to raise the necessary funds to help developing countries protect nature.
Some major economies pushed to expand the range of nations that are expected to provide finance, with countries agreeing at the end of the two weeks of talks that non-donors that want to contribute can “signal interest” before COP18.
This came after developed countries failed to meet a target to significantly ramp up nature finance over the last few years.
It also came as a landmark fund agreed at COP16 in Colombia to pay communities for the genetic resources derived from nature stands nearly empty two years on.
The Yerevan talks marked the halfway point of the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), the “Paris Agreement for nature” first made in 2022 and due to be achieved by 2030.
During the nearly 12-hour-long final plenary, countries voted for Quito, Ecuador, to host the COP18 nature talks, which will be held in 2028.
Countries managed to sign off on all the major negotiation texts, marking a stark contrast to COP16, which ran so far over time that the Colombian presidency lost “quorum”, forcing talks to resume in Rome months later.
Below, Carbon Brief has detailed analysis of all of the key outcomes from COP17.
Formal negotiations
Finance
Finance, predictably, was at the heart of the discord and deadlock at the Yerevan talks.
At COP17, discussions on finance had to achieve several outcomes.
The first part – to take stock of biodiversity finance mobilised so far to meet the nature deal’s goals – fell under the global review.
As the global report noted, developed countries failed to meet their commitments to raise “at least $20bn a year by 2025” for nature. Delegates pointed to falling aid levels and a sharp 27% decline in environmental funding for the 2026-30 period.
The second part was to agree on how to mobilise resources for the next four years, to meet the GBF’s goals and targets.
Calls to “broaden the contributor base” of who pays to protect nature – and whether that should include emerging economies – became the most fraught element of the talks.
Eventually, countries agreed on what Switzerland described as a “super, mega-delicate” text. It hinged on major “political compromises”, with “no major winner or loser”, according to Kenya.
Per the decision, countries that want to be included on a list of developed country donors can “signal interest” through bilateral, confidential consultations before COP18 and every alternate COP after.
Finally, countries also agreed on criteria to shape and resource a new, permanent financial mechanism to protect nature after 2030.
However, this did not immediately take the form of a new fund under the COP that biodiverse countries have demanded since 2022, deferring the mechanism’s institutional structure to COP18.
Resource mobilisation discussions at the GBF’s halfway mark were supposed to agree on how to close the “biodiversity finance gap” and to “increase resources from all sources” to “at least” $200bn per year by 2030, as set out in target 19 of the GBF.
The talks were largely dominated by a push, led by the JUSCANZ bloc of developed countries, to “broaden the contributor base”. This could see emerging economies, such as Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia and India, being added to the list of countries that pay to protect nature.