As human beings, we have become adept at using the resources around us to make life ever more comfortable and convenient. The trouble is those resources are running out. How we find ways to reuse or replenish resources and maintain the comfort and convenience we’ve become used to is a growing part of the global economy. We look at one aspect of this challenge and the opportunities it offers for employment.

The Industrial Revolution, nearly 200 years ago, created the modern world, but it was based on fossil fuels: coal to fire power stations to make electricity, later gas to heat our homes and offices, and oil to power transport and refine into everything from plastics to lipsticks! As we all know, the problem is that burning these fossil fuels fundamentally changes the atmosphere we all breathe and the climate. And the plastics contaminate our planet and kill natural life.

Unchecked, climate change will lead to the extinction of more than a quarter of life on earth, mass human migration, massive sea level rise and flooding, and more extreme storms and winds. That’s not the plot of a science fiction movie, but the science published by the United Nations. It’s all driven by carbon dioxide and equivalent “greenhouse” gases – these trap heat in our atmosphere and are being released at such a quick rate, life on earth cannot adapt to cope.

Fortunately, change is beginning to happen, recognising that we can’t continue to ignore the consequences of releasing carbon and similar gases into the atmosphere. In 2008, the UK was one of the first nations to introduce a law to require the whole country to achieve “Zero Carbon” by 2050. In 2015, 195 national governments committed to The Paris Agreement, which intends to reduce carbon emissions and stop global temperatures rising. This originally aimed to cap the temperatures at no more than 2° Celsius, but now striving for 1.5° as the science has been refined.

The challenge for our lifetime is to deliver these big national goals and, in particular, undo 200 years of addiction to fossil fuels. It will take ideas, action, work and commitment from a lot of people to make Zero Carbon happen for real. That also means there are lots of opportunities for people delivering decarbonisation. In the coming years, we’ll see new companies grow, new jobs, new fortunes made and new inventions become everyday devices. It’s as big a chance as the first Industrial Revolution!

How do we tackle this?

Whatever you choose to do with your future, decarbonisation will be part of your career. Retail, travel, industry, construction, agriculture, business, manufacturing and entertainment are all built on fossil fuels, and that means they will have to change.

An example of this is, according to the UK’s Climate Change Committee, around 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions come from our homes and how we live in them. About a third of those emissions come from the energy used in homes directly (14% of the total), whilst aviation makes just 7%. So, a big focus of work in the future will be on the 28 million homes across the UK.

Electricity for most homes comes from the National Grid and most homes probably have gas or oil central heating, so are certainly using fossil fuels to keep warm, to cook and to power our entertainment habits. Each year, the typical UK home emits somewhere around 8 tonnes of carbon dioxide and “equivalent” gases. Even newly built homes emit more than 1 tonne; every home needs to emit zero carbon or even ‘beyond’ zero to balance out those old homes that can’t quite get to zero.

That means 28 million homes need to be converted to have no carbon emissions. We’ve got to decarbonise every single home in a city the size of Swansea every five weeks, and do it continuously for every five weeks from now until 2050. Achieving this huge task is going to take lots of skills, some that exist and some that have yet to be invented.

There will be a need for skilled installers to fit the Zero Carbon heating systems for our homes, improved insulation, energy storage and intelligent controls. Behind them we need IT technicians, developers and programmers to create firmware and software, and designers to help make it work well for us. We need product designers and engineers to build the components, innovators to improve them, and managers to organise and deliver them. We need scientists to understand the houses’ performance and psychologists and behaviour experts to help us understand how to work with the people in the homes. We need medics to understand the links of Zero Carbon homes to our health, and researchers to evidence them. We need designers and contractors to conceive and transform each individual home, and we need bankers and financiers to help us all pay for it, with help and oversight from those working in government.

And that’s just to tackle the 14% that comes from the energy used in our homes. The good news is that there are a growing number of training courses and opportunities to start your career in decarbonisation.