Regional electricity sector employment and skills under different European policy scenarios

Supporting fossil fuel workers through low-carbon transition and ensuring a sufficient workforce for renewable energy technologies is of utmost importance. To boost climate action while maintaining a just transition in the electricity sector, we assess the regional employment implications in 2035 of two policy ambitions, the ‘Fit for 55’ package of the European Union (EU) and a hypothetical EU-wide coal phaseout. We account for changes in employment and associated skills from electricity generation, storage and transmission, covering the whole supply chain from resource extraction to decommissioning. We then distinguish employment transfers from employment gains to identify skill needs at a NUTS 2 regional scale. We find that net employment creation is higher and more evenly distributed under the ‘Fit for 55’ policy plan compared to the hypothetical EU coal phaseout. Under both policy scenarios, the skill requirements for the workers in transition (many of whom are transferring from fossil fuel technologies to low-carbon technologies) depend on the specific region, while the skillsets needed for employment gains are similar across all European regions as they are driven by employment growth in technologies that require similar skills (wind and solar power). This information can support the design of re-skilling programs, helping to ensure that regions are not left behind in the energy transition.