The Climate Career Portal is a digital platform that connects fossil fuel industry workers with career path opportunities in the net-zero economy, along with climate solution information, industry resources, and connections to training opportunities to support their career transition. We are excited to be able to launch some major changes to the the Portal in February of 2023.
Oil giant BP just announced that the world has likely hit peak oil and demand will decline rapidly into the future. Meanwhile, workers across the country are struggling with the economic effects of the COVD-19 pandemic.
As fossil fuel industry workers, and friends and family of those in the energy industry, we know fossil fuels have contributed significantly to our lives and economy. We also know it’s time to forge a sustainable energy future that creates over a million new careers.
The Renewable Skills Initiative
The Renewable Skills Initiative is designed to build up the workforce required to fill the growing need for skilled solar and wind energy industry workers while empowering our core constituency of fossil fuel industry and Indigenous workers to enter these industries. The primary trainee target is tradespeople across the spectrum, with a goal of gender parity in our programs.
Declining production from conventional oil and gas fields has left 199,000+ inactive wells and more than 160,000 hectares of disturbed land in Alberta. RenuWell aims to accelerate both the clean up of these sites, while also utilizing the existing roads, powerlines, and disturbed lands to reduce the costs for renewable energy projects. Iron & Earth is a core partner on this initiative. The infrastructure for two pilot projects was celebrated in November of 2022. Once final hook-up to the grid is completed we expect the power to go online in the first quarter of 2023.
We believe that hearing directly from the community is vital. As Canada weathers a changing economic, social, and environmental landscape, all of the impacts are felt by people. By setting up small-scale, meaningful conversations in key communities across the country we can hear directly from people most affected, discuss what support would be useful, and focus on solutions.
Canada has two big tasks over the next three decades: we need to make a rapid transition from a fossil fuel based economy to a renewable energy based economy and we need to achieve meaningful reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. Fossil fuel, Indigenous, trades, and equity-deserving workers who have the skills we need to build the new economy, do not always have access to adequate training they will need to do that work. Our Net-Zero Pathways program will provide subsidies, incentives, and training to employees and employers to develop the skilled workforce needed for a sustainable and diversified economy.