Ed Atkins on the geography of green jobs – Oct 21st 2025

“Future geographies of work in a changing climate”

There were plenty in attendance at this autumn lecture in late October, which took place after a quick AGM with a reflections on the past year and no change to the committee.

Ed Atkins, Associate Professor at the University of Bristol presented some of the latest thinking on the geography and the green economy, focussing on skills, training and employment. His research and teaching focus is on the political, social and economic dimensions of climate and energy policy, and was recently seconded on a UKRI Research Policy Fellowship to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Ed dived straight into the politics. He declared that politicians are “attempting to come up with policies that people see themselves benefitting from”. He presented the latest from Darren Jones – Bristol NW MP and Keir Starmer’s ‘fixer’ from the “Darren explains” videos. The message here is “GB Energy will deliver.. cheaper bills, improved security”.

Green jobs – on the rise – but there is a geography to this.

With net zero politics, where we will see economic restructuring? What sort of jobs are directly impacted? What are more indirectly impacted? Ed illustrated some of the numbers, especially regional variation.

Southwest England will see 3% growth in green jobs. Green infrastructure; free ports; North Devon biosphere; agritech; nuclear; South Crofty mine; tin/rare earths – all get a mention. A varied mix of opportunities with knock-on benefits.

But what jobs are at risk? There is a tension with industrial heritage. There are path dependencies or a “carbon-lock inn” for some regions. “You just can’t flick the switch in some regions”. There is an inertia. There are also legal and technological dependencies. Business/investment models are based on extraction well into the future, leaving “stranded assets”. Video footage of ‘angry’ workers from Port Talbot brought home some of these points.

Ed considered “What’s working, what’s not?, and introduced the concept of “stranded communities”. There is a long shadow of coal mine closures. Deindustrialisation has led to more commuting, with work much further from home for many people. Ed repeated the concern that “policies need to make things work for everyone”, but there remain some geographical outliers: “old industrial”; “rural economies”

The final message considered the move from talking about the requirement of green to resilient skills. There is a skills gap, with plenty of opportunities.

Skills is always high on the agenda, and there is a move to think more about resilience, not necessarily ‘green’.

A final quote – “restructure not shock”

To see a copy of the slides, see Resources (students)