Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
Move over white and blue collars.
China's green collar workforce is booming.
With 3 .4 million eco workers and counting, the country is racing toward a sustainable future.
But what's behind the surge?
How is the country cultivating this growing wave of environmental professionals?
And could this approach become a global blueprint?
We are live from Beijing.
This is Roundtable.
I'm Steve, and for today's show, I'm joined by Ngo Honglin and Ding Heng.
First, on the program.
The workforce landscape is ever evolving, it feels these days, and a new category is rising, the green collar worker.
These professionals employed in the environmental and sustainability sectors are driving China's ecological transformation.
Here's the proof. By the end of 2024 China's environmental protection sector boasted over 3 .4 million practitioners.
That is a testament to the country's ambitious push toward a greener future.
How has the country done it?
How have they cultivated such a vast and skilled talent pool?
Well the answer lies in a strategic blend of policy vision, targeted education and hands -on training positioning these workers at the forefront of the global sustainability movement.
Let's get into it. You know for me, Dingheng and Nhonglin, green collar worker was a new term.
I had never heard of it before, but with so many jobs now being created and the industry, so many industries ever evolving, the workforce ever evolving, jobs being created that didn't exist even just a few years ago, it does make sense that times are changing rapidly and the jobs are coming along with it." So Niu Honglin, let's dive right in.
Where do we start with this one?
Well, we start back to 2009, because just like white workers or blue workers, it's not the kind of definition that you find in a dictionary.
You do find it in the dictionary, but it's more like a common understanding of which kind of job falls into the category of a blue worker job, a white worker job, or in this case, a green worker job.
And here in 2009, China Daily says that a greenworker or green collar worker is a worker who is employed in the environmental sectors of the economy.
Environmental greenworker, green collar workers or green jobs.
Initially, it was called a green job satisfied the demand for green development.
Generally, they implement environmentally conscious design, policy, and technology to improve conservation and sustainability.
so this term it's been around for a long time.
These types of jobs perhaps have been around for a long time too, but as climate change has become more of an issue as sustainability has become more of an important aspect of everyone's lives, now the term green collar worker has become more I guess important in our everyday lives.
It is! The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued a dictionary, see it's really in a dictionary, a Dictionary of Occupational Titles in 1999, and in 2015, the dictionary identified several well recognized occupations with distinct green features as green occupations.
And in 2022, the new edition of this dictionary for the expanded and refined the definition of green occupations, labeling 134 green occupations.
In 2024, it labeled three more green occupations.
For those of you who find it a little bit vague, these green occupations mainly cover almost all the areas that are related to environmental protection or working in the field or consulting jobs that have something to do with helping the company, finding their sustainable development path, so it's quite a grand or umbrella term in my opinion.
Dictionaries update their list of words every year, and the government updates their list every year, maybe even every few months now, with new green occupations.
So Dingheng, what are some examples, then, of green collar workers?
Yeah. So what Niu Ho Lin has mentioned about is mostly on the front of government recognition of these occupations, but on some individual cases, some individual stories I have checked.
Actually many young graduates are nowadays choosing careers in the so -called green industries such as environmental engineers or environmental, social, and governance consultants that's the first time I have heard about this particular occupation and renewable energy engineer and environmental policy analytics yes as that's right so let me just interrupt you right there if you don't mind because even I had to I've heard the term environmental engineer so many different times but if you asked me what does an environmental engineer do I wouldn't know so I found out it just like you heard that new
term that new for the first time Dingheng.
Environmental engineers, they protect our planet, they protect our health.
They are involved in design solutions, like water and wastewater treatment plants and air pollution control systems and solid waste disposal and recycling programs and hazardous waste management strategies.
So, these are all connected with the design and implementation of things that protect the planet and things that protect the humans that, and animals that live on the planet.
When think about designers, like they, uh, paint the bigger picture and having people find a way to act on things, but different companies, different industries, different specific factory manufacturing, a certain component that is so trivial in a machine that you don't even recognize or don't even notice.
It's actually what needs a specific way to develop and to function greener.
And those designers are in great needs.
Because the bigger picture is out there, it's easy to say, ah, we want to sort out garbage according to the nature of the garbage.
But actually, it is quite close to exactly which genre, which industry, which factory you're helping.
yeah bing hong i apologize i interrupted you could you give us a couple of specific examples perhaps of of jobs here in China and how they relate yeah oh before that i'm really glad that Neu -Hou Ling has mentioned these technical you know trivial things she has a you know technical education background so it's really important to put that into perspective thank you but one example i'm looking at here is that in Chongqing an island administered by by the Shanghai Municipal Government.
Over there, there is an energy storage power station that stores electricity during non -peak hours and discharges electricity during peak hours.
It is helping a nearby fishery business reduce energy expansion of cold storage facilities.
So, the idea is that if you are, for example, if you are a maintenance administrator at this energy storage power station, then your main job responsibility is to ensure that the station's facilities are operating safely and efficiently.
You can refer to yourself as a green -collar worker, that's for sure.
We are also seeing cases where some young professionals in their 20s, very young, taking of a position known as a carbon capture technician at a power station on the same island of Changxing as well, because in 2023 the station launched a 100 ,000 ton carbon capture utilization and storage project with an aim to capture the carbon dioxide emitted by the plant and supply it to some local marine equipment manufacturers.
So what I have learned is that plans are actually on the way to further expand this particular pro program or project.
So, obviously the demands for all those skilled workers will continue to grow.
That is a very specific and actually those two jobs are very specific and very technical jobs.
And if those are two examples, then there are probably two million more examples.
Let's just go through a list of a few more examples.
Recycling workers, those would be considered green collar workers too.
They're responsible for sorting and processing and managing recyclable materials.
Farm managers, they oversee agricultural operations with a focus on sustainable farming practices.
Sourcing specialists, if that's a new term for you, it means that they identify and procure sustainable materials and products for companies.
Again, very important work but not something that we think about on a daily basis.
Those people work to ensure that the supply chain is environmentally responsible.
You've got wind turbine technicians, waste managers, geotechnical engineers, energy consultants.
I mean, the list just goes on and on and on.
And I guess here we're talking about different fields too, aren't we?
Yeah, we definitely are.
Because different fields would require green collar workers in different ways.
For instance, consultation or conservation fields focus on protecting natural resources and wildlife, and green collar workers in this area may work for government agencies, nonprofits or private organizations dedicated to preserving natural habitats and biodiversity and they can do the job of conducting research, learning about the local environment and habitats, they can work as someone who's patrolling in an ancient forest helping local people understand the data and the status quo of a certain group of wild animals.
Sure, my friend used to be a park ranger in Arizona in the United States and his job was to patrol the area, make sure that the people were following the rules that were set forth by the park, but also make making sure that the animals were safe and protected, he would qualify.
I think as a green collar worker.
Definitely, right, at that time of his life.
Hmm. And there are eco -friendly design involves recreating products, building system that have minimal environmental impact.
So this is also the kind of job that I feel like a lot of companies would require.
And there's also the electric vehicle industries.
They would employ, uh, green collar workers to develop, manufacture and maintain electric cars and related infrastructure.
And the very specific example I read about was this one person who's in charge of managing the electric storage area in this company.
And it's kind of like managing some really huge power banks and deciding which group or which part of electricity goes to which huge power bank.
And the power bank is responsible for supporting and providing electricity for which exact community area or residential community.
It's it's a cool and really fun job.
And again, very specific.
Very specific. Yeah, yeah.
Again, there's tons and tons and tons and tons of examples.
But we just learned, didn't we, that this kind of umbrella term covers nonprofits, government agencies, private organizations, engineers, architects, designers, people who work in the automotive industry, people who work in the environmental industry, the green energy sector itself, of course would be the top of that list I suppose.
And one specific area we didn't have a chance to mention, but definitely qualify as a green collar job would be the organic farming industry or any type of new farmers could be qualified as a green collar job.
And they promotes agricultural practices that are environmentally sustainable and free from aesthetic chemicals.
This is also very important for the agricultural sector, such as agricultural managers, agricultural technicians, family, farm operators, agricultural e -commerce workers representing the...
they actually represent new types of professional farmers.
And the new types of professional farmers enjoy a lot of different policies from the central government as well as local government.
There are different types of training, different types of subsidy helping them to be more professional to be a farmer and this these group of people also falls into this category.
And by the way, I personally find it's really exhilarating and interesting to work for an green collar workers to provide some expertise on environmental regulations, sustainability issues, and impact assessments, etc., on pollution.
The show I work on as a host, we interact with some of these consultants on a day to day basis whenever we have an environmental topic.
we invite these people to come on our show to act as a commentator and if you check on their daily WeChat update Well, they are updating about the environment today's like how smoggy Today's environment will be, how much pollution they have detected in this particular section of the river That's very very a comprehensive way of you know showing commitment to environmental protection.
Yeah and it's got to be really rewarding I would think to work in that industry as well.
There's lots of, I mean for young people or anybody for that matter who's interested in getting involved there must be a list of rewards or benefits to working in the green collar industries because there are so many of course.
There are so many, and if you think about it the biggest one, at least for me, it's really rewarding in the sense that you understand you're helping the planet, you're helping the entire humanity living on the planet, because these kinds of jobs help mitigate the impacts of climate change and environmental problems such as pollution, and individuals in green -collar jobs can contribute to a more sustainable economy.
You can feel good about what you're doing with your work.
You're doing concrete things to help the planet.
Ooh. And if we think about blue worker and a blue collar worker and white collar worker, their definition or their, uh, these umbrella terms talks about their working environment.
Previously, people would consider white collar workers job better because you stay in the office.
You don't have to step out.
You do not have to be exposed to sunlight and heavy winds.
But now people don't think like that, staying in the office is not healthy.
Sitting or enjoying quote unquote enjoying a sedentary lifestyle is considered not healthy.
Think about green collar workers.
Their working environment is not confined in just one place.
Sometimes they stay in the office doing their research. And after a long day, the next day they decided to go into the forest or go alongside a river to do some detect, and to collect the data, and their job in my opinion is a perfect combination of a little bit indoor, cozy, and a lot of outdoor healthy.
You've got that, and then you've got a growing sector.
So with all those new jobs available, that has to be comforting for people who are thinking about getting involved in studying, and that leads when there's lots of job growth, there's lots of job security for your future too.
All right, so those are some examples and that's why it's a really wonderful and beneficial thing to get involved with.
Now let's talk about China specifically.
China needs a lot of young green talent, if we can put it like that.
Yes, in China the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security published 19 new occupations in July last year, including three green collar occupations and survey showed that the practitioners of new occupations are mainly young people with over 90 % of them being born in the 1980s and 1990s.
And check out the, again, some more solid examples.
We have building energy conservation and emission production consultant.
We have robotics engineer related to greenfields.
These are cool jobs and no wonder young people enjoy doing them.
hmm I'm not sure it's only confined for the young people because if you are talking about people born in the early period of the 1980s they are no longer that young, they're in their 40s right but anyway it's appealing kind of job for people that's for sure and according to data from the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, this industry association, between Between 2021 and 2025, the demand for talents in China's carbon emission reduction field will be somewhere between 550 ,000 and 1 million.
But currently there are only about somewhere about 100 ,000 related practitioners in this particular field, so the gap remains huge.
In the future we're going to see a scenario where the carbon assessment or the carbon assets department will become a very regular or common department within any enterprise.
That's the bigger trend, just like the finance department, etc. Over the next five or ten years, China's demand for talents in carbon emission reduction will continue to grow.
Here in China, we have a specific term like dual carbon, it means carbon peak and carbon neutrality.
Right, so because of the goals of China, the carbon peak and the carbon neutrality goals, then to achieve those goals, you need people to work in those industries and to have people work in those industries, you have to cultivate the talent.
It doesn't just grow on trees, so to speak.
Just quickly on the dual carbon, can we get a brief definition of what that is for people who might not know?
Sure. China aims to have carbon dioxide emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, meaning that by 2030, the carbon emissions will only go down every year, actually every day.
And till 2060, the carbon emission and the carbon storage or carbon absorption to some extent, would equal to each other, would cancel out each other, and China will lower its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by over 65 percent from the 2005 level, increase the share of non -fossil fields in primary energy consumption to around 25 percent, increase the forest stock volume by 6 million cubic meters from the 2005 level again, and bring its total installed capacity of wind and solar power to over 1 .2 billion kilowatts by 2030.
I've listed a lot of numbers, but one thing to remember or to take away here is that China is being very serious about carbon emission or carbon dioxide emission, and they are doing, like Steve said, a lot changing or transforming different industries, cultivating talents working in this field and setting the goals, that they are actually very steadily moving towards with the current challenges still being there.
So I see this industry being prosperous, definitely.
Yeah, and the classification of green occupations as a result, it's constantly expanding, right?
And with these expanding definitions, that means that policy and regulation is expanding as well.
government policies and regulations related to environmental protection and climate change.
They're always changing new laws, new standards, they drive the demand for specific green skills and occupations.
Stricter regulations on carbon emissions, for example.
That can lead to an increased need for carbon auditors and emissions reduction specialist. So, with all these needs, then what is China doing to prepare for these future green collar workers?
I mean, from an educational standpoint, how are these young people getting ready for these jobs?
Yeah I realize many colleges and universities here in China have already ramped up their own efforts to cultivate those talents the relevant professionals and the training of professionals in this particular area is actually a comprehensive or integrated matter.
They need to be equipped with interdisciplinary studies or skills spanning from science, technology, engineering, finance, and management skills as well.
I guess to better nurture the right type of talent, some university professors have actually highlighted or emphasized the need to establish academic programs focused on green and low they're calling for offering some dual -degree programs and interdisciplinary courses in order to enhance the university students again comprehensive capabilities.
We were talking about this, Niu Honglin.
I think it was you, Lai Ming and I, when we were talking about AI and the future of AI and the importance of interdisciplinary study.
For example, the humanities plus engineering or the humanities plus the medical field.
Having young people ready to enter the workforce not just as technical experts but with technical expertise and the planet and people in mind.
Yes and local governments are also acting on it.
In 2023, Shandong province held a total of almost 2 ,000 green and low carbon vocational training sessions benefitting over 77 ,000 workers and the province has made some progress in green and low -carbon vocational training, creating jobs in the green and low -carbon sector, supporting entrepreneurial projects, and giving priority or priority policy support for employment and entrepreneurship to companies and initiatives in the green and low -carbon field.
And that is not to say that the industry does not face any problems or any challenges.
According to a Workers' Daily Report, experts point out that vocational certification training institutions offer training at uneven quality in the market, some are really good, some are not that qualified, and we need to make sure that people who are in need of such trainings know how to identify the good ones.
And it is suggested that human resources management departments, industry associations, vocational certain rules and regulations and maybe guidance helping people creating a better market for these types of training.
Yeah and all of that all of those concerns are fair and justified I would say.
We talked about a few minutes ago about the advantages of working in a green collar job but again just as you said Johong -Lin it's not to say that there aren't disadvantages or challenges of these types of jobs.
Dingheng, what do you think some of the, some of the maybe things to be concerned about?
Well, for example, limited availability or accessibility because green -collar jobs are not equally available across all regions.
Oh, yeah. Right. So, depending on which part of the country you are, in some regions, probably have more abundant job opportunities, and this could be a challenge for individuals who may want to relocate for those relevant opportunities.
also maybe funding an investment but here in China I don't think that's a big deal because we have the government policy support that's the most important thing but I mean market forces are important as well markets can face uncertainties that's the nature of the market and maybe technological because of technological advance there could be some automation or or job displacement related to negative impacts on people.
I don't know. I think these are disadvantages for almost all the things or old occupations, every job.
And those, we just listed all the advantages.
Well, the advantages are the same as the disadvantages, it seems. Globally, if we look around the world, this is from earthday .org.
And what they did was they used real -time data unemployment and skills for over a billion users worldwide and and linkedin if you're familiar with that outlet they had a report that came with a pretty shocking conclusion the green skilled workforce is not keeping up with green job growth so what that means is there and you just touched on this dinghong there aren't enough skilled workers to go around and industries are becoming a little bit desperate to fill more positions, they say roughly half of the jobs in the 2050 green economy will lack qualified candidates if we don't focus on strategic
expanse of upskilling.
So that thing that you mentioned, that situation that you mentioned happening here in China, that gap, Dingheng, that's happening globally as well.
So if we think about that, there's a big demand for these types of skilled workers, but the supply of these workers is not quite there, then that makes it all the more important that governments and universities work together to create the proper programs to make sure that there are enough people coming out of those programs to fill these jobs.
And we see already the government, as well as certain institutions, trying to improve the training and the policies for green collar workers.
In the meantime, like we've already mentioned in the very beginning of the discussion, it's emission or it's a factor that every company, every industry should consider.
It's like we're living in the planet, so we need to as individuals, need to find a greener way.
And if every company realizes that hiring a green collar worker would help them develop better, then the industry would minus a lot a lot of uncertainty.
Yes, exactly. and the global demand for workers with green skills or green talent.
It rose by 11 .6 % over the last year.
The supply only rose by 5 .6 % and this continues trends from previous years and as soon as 2030, one in five green jobs could go unfilled and that could threaten the transition to green economy.
So when governments put these policies in place to make the world a cleaner and healthier place to live, then we have to make sure that we're preparing young people or whoever is interested in getting involved in this type of work to make sure that they are as prepared as they need to be.
Interesting chat on that one.
