IEMA to set out skills campaign at Bonn Climate Change Conference

Media release, 5 June 2023

Earlier this year, IEMA announced plans for a campaign to achieve greater recognition of the crucial role that green skills and jobs will play in tackling the global climate crisis.

The Institute would like the agreements that are reached at COP28 to reflect the need to invest in and develop a global workforce that can tackle climate change head-on.  The campaign specifically targets the COP 28 cover text; the record of high-level decisions that will be reached at the negotiations in the United Arab Emirates in December.

Up until now, there has been little to no reference to skills and workforce development in the cover text documents of previous COP events.

IEMA is asking for a decision that mandates countries to think about their workforces and the role green skills and jobs must play, far more strategically.

Over the next two weeks (5th to 15th June) IEMA staff will be laying the groundwork for the campaign at the Bonn Climate Change Conference.

Every year governments, businesses, and third sector organisations meet in Bonn to set the framework for the formal COP negotiations that then take place later in the year.

On the agenda, this time round will be discussion on how best to establish the loss and damage fund that was agreed at COP27, plus the latest thinking on how to effectively unlock climate finance. The usual ‘stock take’ on where the UNFCCC is overall on climate mitigation and adaptation will also take place.

Ultimately, the delivery of each of these things is dependent on the right skills and jobs being in place. This is what IEMA staff will be focused on communicating at Bonn during the many fringe events and workshops that the team there will be attending.