From Coal to Clean Jobs: How Nations Support Workers in the Shift to Sustainability

Across the OECD, countries are overhauling employment and skills systems to manage job losses in carbon-intensive sectors and build a workforce ready for growing green industries, using strategies that combine training reform, financial incentives, regional support and stronger governance. The report shows that successful transitions hinge on inclusive planning, targeted reskilling and place-based policies that ensure workers and communities are not left behind.

Countries across the OECD are reshaping their labour markets as they advance toward net-zero emissions by 2050, and research from the Austrian Institute of Economic Research, the Austrian Energy Agency, the Foundation for Economic Research, the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market, Trinomics, and the OECD underscores that the green transition is a profound socioeconomic reordering. Carbon-intensive sectors are shedding jobs while new opportunities emerge in renewable energy, sustainable construction, circular manufacturing, and low-carbon technologies. Yet the geography and skill requirements of these jobs rarely match those being lost. Workers in high-emission sectors, often older and less educated, face steep earnings declines after displacement, revealing a growing divide between those positioned to participate in the green economy and those at risk of being left behind.

Countries Craft Roadmaps to Manage Change

In response, several nations have built comprehensive strategies to guide this transformation. Austria’s Education and Training Action Plan for the Just Transition, devised through wide consultations, embeds climate literacy into apprenticeships, updates traditional occupational standards, and even introduces new professions like climate gardeners. Canada’s Sustainable Jobs Plan, later anchored in legislation, creates a Sustainable Jobs Secretariat and a Partnership Council to institutionalise transition governance, improve labour-market data, and ensure Indigenous communities help shape and benefit from the shift. Flanders’ proposed Green Skills Roadmap outlines a highly structured vision emphasising forecasting, co-funding tools, curriculum reform, and a Green Skills and Jobs Coalition to unify diverse actors. Ireland’s Green Skills 2030 strategy focuses on its further-education system, identifying sector-specific needs in construction, engineering, transport, and ESG reporting, while strengthening pathways between vocational and higher education. The Netherlands, facing acute shortages in technical and ICT fields, launched an Action Plan for Green and Digital Jobs aiming to train over one million ICT professionals by 2030, backed by major investments in lifelong learning, hybrid teaching, and regional partnerships. Spain’s Just Transition Strategy, meanwhile, is rooted in territorial justice, delivering retraining, income support, and new investments to coal regions through place-specific Just Transition Agreements.

Apprenticeships Become Engines of Green Skills

A major theme across countries is the modernisation of apprenticeships. Austria, Ireland, Finland, and others embed sustainability competencies across all programmes, while the United Kingdom’s Green Toolkit requires every revised apprenticeship standard to integrate themes such as energy efficiency, circularity, and climate resilience. Sector-specific pathways are also expanding: Sweden’s solar-energy manager programme offers employed adults a hybrid route into renewable-energy professions, and Denmark’s apprentice-led sustainability movement in carpentry has influenced national curriculum reform toward low-carbon building methods. Bulgaria’s ENTIRE project pilots green-skills updates to electrician training, pointing the way for full national rollout.

Financial Incentives Motivate Workers to Reskill

Countries are also using financial tools to steer workers toward skills for the green transition. Croatia’s voucher system, one of the broadest in Europe, allows any adult with basic education to receive up to EUR 3,000 for accredited green or digital courses, chosen through a dedicated online platform. Wales adapted its Personal Learning Account model by lifting salary caps on green courses, enabling mid-career workers in carbon-heavy sectors to retrain in areas like renewable energy and retrofit technologies. Employers, too, receive targeted support: Austria’s Digi-Scheck reimburses apprentices for green-related learning; the UK’s Building Futures grants reduce the cost for SMEs hiring green apprentices; and Australia’s incentive system offers substantial payments to apprentices and employers in clean-energy occupations.

Regions Need Tailored Strategies for Fair Transition

The report stresses that the green transition is geographically uneven and requires place-based interventions. Germany’s Rhenish mining region, Greece’s Western Macedonia, and Spain’s coal territories demonstrate how regional revitalisation depends on territorial diagnostics, community involvement, conditional funding, and the creation of new economic anchors. These models show that climate policy must be matched with strong social policy to maintain public support. Across all cases, countries that progress most effectively share a clear long-term vision, robust governance, inclusive stakeholder engagement, strong monitoring systems, and proactive communication efforts. While no nation has yet assembled a perfect policy mix, many are laying the foundations for a fairer, more resilient, and socially supported transition to a low-carbon future.