Climate Tech: A Promising Job Market in 2024

The tech industry has been hit hard by layoffs in recent months, but there is one area that is bucking the trend: climate tech. This booming industry is focused on developing new technologies to help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and combat climate change. As a result, there are a growing number of job opportunities in this field, and many tech workers are making the shift to climate tech in order to do work that they feel is meaningful and makes a positive impact on the world.

Continued Investment in a Growing Industry

While the industry will still face obstacles (struggles in public markets and high interest rates present possible hurdles), climate tech is showing strong signs of thriving. In recent years, investors have shown commitment to climate tech even during difficult economic times. According to BloombergNEF, the sector raised $51 billion in private equity funding and venture capital last year. While this did represent a decline from the previous year, it was smaller than the dip other industries experienced, and the first time the industry received less capital than the previous year since the pandemic.

Moreover, they also reported that the US is the best-funded market for climate technology startups for the third year in a row, with a total of $14.6 billion put into the startups, which is almost $3 billion higher than the second biggest market in the industry (Mainland China).

Jobs in Clean Energy Increase

As investment has continued, jobs in clean energy have been increasing. A report by E2 indicated that clean energy jobs are on the rise. According to their findings, clean energy added jobs 53% faster than the rest of the US economy, with 1 in 30 net new jobs nationwide coming from the sector. In 2022, clean energy as a whole grew by 9.2%, and as of that time, 3.3 million Americans worked in the industry.

Clean vehicle makers were leaders in the clean energy industry when it came to job growth, adding almost 50,000 jobs in the electric, hydrogen and fuel cell vehicle business. The growth of these subsectors (each at least 27%) outpaced the growth experienced by the gas and diesel vehicle sector (1.6%) by a significant margin.

Out of the renewable energy industries monitored, wind energy grew the most (7.5%), followed by geothermal (5.0%).

Energy efficiency was found to be the largest employer in the whole energy sector, providing jobs to almost 2.2 million workers. While employment was down from its peak before Covid (which was almost 3.4 million workers), the sector did grow by over 50,000 jobs in 2022 from the previous year.

The report also broke down employment trends by state and subsector.

The job growth in the sector has also caught the attention of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In their report on projected changes of employment for 2022-23, they predicted more growth for wind turbine service technician jobs than any other occupation on the list at a whopping 45% (except nurse practitioners, who also were projected to grow by 45%). Solar photovoltaic installers were 15th on the list with a projected job growth of 22%.

Not Just a Financially-Driven Shift

While layoffs in the general tech industry puts pressure on tech workers and is a cause for alarm, climate change is a growing industry that presents new opportunities to those able to enter or make the shift. But the optimism around the field isn’t confined to economic reasons. Even independently of purely financial motivations, some tech workers have been moving into climate tech due to concerns about climate change and a desire to do meaningful and satisfying work.

It’s hard to make an argument against the positive benefits of clean energy. And if the sector continues to grow, it could also provide two additional benefits – both gainful employment and the satisfaction of making a positive impact – to increasing numbers of workers.

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