The phenomenon of global warming has seen widespread acceptance, slowly but surely. And today, it is a mainstream consideration when it comes to forming and running businesses, research and development (R&D) on innovative products, and policymaking at any level. Most people recognise the importance of reducing carbon emissions in various facets of life, and the consequence on climate if emissions are left unmitigated.

Most of the carbon dioxide equivalent emissions into the earth’s atmosphere comes from five main sources, as outlined in Bill Gates’ recent book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster’ — manufacturing (steel, plastics, cement, etc.), transportation, buildings (heating and insulation), electricity generation and agriculture. People with a variety of educational backgrounds can make meaningful careers in decarbonisation in each of these areas. The multidisciplinary nature of teams is what makes climate careers so impactful.

Skillset

There is a high demand for chemical engineers, material scientists and mechanical engineers for R&D and innovation in clean energy or decarbonisation technologies. A background in electrochemistry (science of how electrons or charges move under influence of an electric field and facilitate chemical reactions), transport phenomena and process engineering (study of scaling up of technologies) also help. On the finance side, knowledge of asset management (practice of growing investments over time), mergers and acquisitions, and debt and equity financing (how to lend money) are all equally important.

Climate policy, however, is unique. Dedicated courses are hard to find in Indian universities but that should change over the next decade. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, hustle should be a key part of the skillset.

Careers

Engineering careers can range from fundamental scientific research (as part of master’s or PhD programmes supported by the Indian government) to industrial development as part of a firm. In India, a key climate problem is to enhance the percentage of renewable energy — solar or wind — in the grid along with increasing access to clean power to a large fraction of the population.

Project management and project engineering are two popular roles in energy companies that address this.

There is no single big solar energy or wind energy company but a collection of small ventures that work with local governments in a decentralised manner.

For people with a finance background, transitioning to climate-focused careers can be more of a mid-career move. Start-up founders need funding to realise their dreams, so becoming a venture capitalist with a focus on climate technologies is a great option. There are a lot of wealthy people with funds to put into a good cause, but they need trustworthy individuals who will manage and put the money in the right places. Venture capital can be standalone (or “institutional”) when financed by independent individuals, or corporate when financed by a firm to acquire and scale innovative climate-focused technologies coming out of start-ups and research labs.

Not every climate venture has to be a start-up; it could also be an existing power company or a building manufacturer that plans on reducing their emissions. Cleantech-focused private equity investors fund such endeavours and enable the companies to understand which equipment might be replaced with a cleaner alternative and how long it might take for the firm to profit off their noble endeavour.

A mid-career finance individual can also assume a strategic role in firms or start-ups in the climate space and help them navigate collaborations with state and central governments as well as mergers and acquisitions with or by manufacturing firms who engage in climate technology-focused projects.

Lastly, policy action is at the crux of the effort to move to a greener future. Indian climate policy is slowly headed towards becoming more inclusive of climate-related metrics as India is a signatory to the Paris Climate Agreement, which is a pledge to take steps to limit global warming to 1.5°C by 2050.

In the United States and the European Union, there are dedicated climate policy researchers as well as members of the house of commons who uphold the grassroots’ mission on climate change and the consequential quality of life of citizens.

As of today, not a lot of career options are available on the climate policy front as most policy roles are under the umbrella of the Union Public Service Commission, but that is more likely to change than not.

The writer is a scientist and chemical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US. He has been researching clean energy and energy storage technologies and has worked on hydrogen technologies at Apple and institutional venture capital firms