Whose Jobs Are at Risk During a Transition to Green Energy?

Martha Mangelsdorf | MIT Sloan | 10/23/2024

To combat the negative effects of climate change, making a transition to green energy is vital. But what will happen to people whose jobs are significantly linked to fossil fuel use? And what policy options are available to mitigate the employment effects of such a transition?

That was a question explored at a September 2024 session of the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER) weekly research seminar. While most sessions of the IWER seminar focus on just one scholar’s research, this special session consisted of a shorter presentation by MIT Sloan Professor Christopher Knittel, followed by comments from a panel of three MIT faculty members with differing areas of expertise. The aim? To foster a multidisciplinary discussion about the intersection between the transition to a greener economy with work and good jobs concerns. 

“The costs of climate change are not uniform,” observed Knittel, who is the MIT Sloan School’s Associate Dean for Climate and Sustainabilityas well as the George P. Shultz Professor and a Professor of Applied Economics at MIT Sloan. Research Knittel conducted with a former MIT graduate student, Kailin Graham, mapped the carbon intensity of jobs across the U.S., capturing 86% of U.S. carbon emissions through a measure Graham and Knittel call the “employment carbon footprint.” In their analysis, Graham and Knittel sought to measure, on a county-by-county level, not only direct carbon emissions at a workplace, but also emissions related to its electricity use, as well as those embedded in products made from fossil fuels.

Read the full article here.

By MIT Sloan CDO
MIT Sloan CDO