The growing issue of climate change has created a whole new job market that looks set for staggering further growth over the next five years.

Research by sustainability recruitment consultancy Acre Resources shows that in the past year there was a 130 per cent increase in specialist jobs relating to climate change.

And the explosion in climate change-specific jobs over the past three years is reflected by rises in average wages in the sector – from £19,000 in 2005 to £45,000 today.

Andy Cartland, director of Acre Resources, said: “Roles such as ‘climate change manager’, reporting to the board, are becoming commonplace within major blue chips.

“With consumers demanding more climate-friendly products, and investors putting pressure on companies to take action, climate change is an issue that’s being pushed up the corporate agenda. Judging from the work we’ve been doing with major clients, it won’t be long before entire teams focusing on climate change become the norm.”

Growing teams means brand new roles – for instance, some companies are now looking to assess the full carbon footprint of their products. Therefore, in-depth auditing work is required to measure the CO2 emissions from operational and manufacturing processes, hence the evolution of the role of carbon footprint manager.

Acre Resources’ data shows:

• The size of teams in big companies working in the CSR, environmental and climate change sectors has, on average, tripled in the last three years




• This growth curve looks set to continue at least for the next couple of years




• The number of climate change jobs grew by more than 200 per cent in the past 12 months




• The number of other environmental specialist jobs grew by an estimated 28 per cent last year.