Green Jobs in the UK: What the Latest ONS Data Reveals About Local Opportunities

The transition to a net-zero economy is not just a national ambition—it’s a deeply local challenge and opportunity. The latest experimental estimates of green jobs published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this month provide valuable insights for combined authorities, councils, and local economic planners seeking to understand and support the growth of green employment in their regions. 

This report presents a more rounded picture of green jobs across the UK, using three complementary methods to estimate the scale and characteristics of environmentally focused employment; helping to define the actual meaning of a ‘green job’.  Each approach offers a different lens—sectoral, firm-level, and occupational—and helps inform the place-based decisions that local leaders must make to prepare their economies and communities for the green transition. 

The Headline Figures  

• There are 690,900 full-time equivalent (FTE) green jobs in the UK as of 2023. 

• A 34.6% increase from 2015. 

• Growth is concentrated in waste management, energy-efficient products, and renewables.  

• The sharpest growth areas are in renewable energy, +153.9% and low-carbon transport, +181%.  

A Planning Baseline – Sector Based Green Jobs  

The industry approach estimates jobs in sectors that are inherently green, such as renewable energy, waste, and insulation manufacturing. 

This method provides a high-level planning baseline for local skills and infrastructure needs. For instance: 

• Growth in low-carbon transport jobs may highlight rising demand for EV infrastructure planning and public transport investment. 

• Expansion in waste and circular economy sectors can guide local authority procurement and recycling strategy. 

Councils can also align economic development funding, inward investment promotion, and skills partnerships to support growing sub-sectors. 

Understand Regional Risk and Opportunity – Firm Level Emissions  

The firm-based method looks at green jobs by the emissions intensity of different industries and employers—allowing local areas to identify carbon-intensive employment clusters that may be vulnerable in the transition. 

Key insights: 

• 46% of UK workers are in low-emission sectors (producing just 4.4% of total emissions). 

• 15.8% of workers are in high-emission industries (producing over 80% of emissions). 

• Regionally: 

• East Midlands: 23.9% of full-time equivalent jobs are in high-emission sectors. 

• London: Only 7.2% of full-time equivalent jobs in high-emission industries; 62.8% in low-emission ones. 

For local and combined authorities, this method can be used to: 

• Identify workforce risk in carbon-heavy industries (e.g. manufacturing, construction). 

• Prioritise just transition strategies for vulnerable areas. 

• Design transition support programmes and target skills bootcamps or retraining efforts. 

Greening Jobs Across All Sectors – Occupation-Based  

The occupation approach looks at the tasks people do, regardless of sector—capturing the spread of green work across traditional roles like engineering, project management, or construction. 

While still under development, this perspective is essential for: 

• Workforce planning: Even non-green sectors (e.g. housing, planning, finance) are embedding green tasks into roles. 

• Skills commissioning: Encouraging providers to integrate green content into general training—such as retrofit skills into construction apprenticeships. 

• Local employer engagement: Helping SMEs identify how to upskill staff for net-zero. 

Estimates suggest 7–8% of working hours involved green tasks in 2019; by 2024, 12% of UK adults reported doing green work. This trend will only accelerate as decarbonisation plans are delivered locally. An example of this is the Climate and Environment Plan published by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority.  

Why does this matter to local government? 

This ONS release comes at a critical time. Local and combined authorities are delivering decarbonisation through plans, pilot projects, investments and retrofits.  

The success of these policies depends on workforce readiness, industrial mix, and regional exposure to transition risk—precisely what these estimates begin to quantify. 

Authorities can use this data to: 

• Shape local green jobs strategies 

• Target investment and grants  

• Align employer engagement with real-time workforce change 

• Develop tailored just transition plans with skills providers and anchor institutions.  

Final Thoughts 

As stewards of local economic development and climate delivery, councils and combined authorities have a vital role in ensuring the green transition is fair, inclusive, and job-rich. The ONS’s 2025 estimates offer powerful tools to back this up with evidence-led planning and action. 

This is exactly why we, at The Sustainability Community, believe strongly in public-private partnerships and the potential they unlock. This includes partnering with combined authorities in all of the cities we deliver our conferences in. You can read why this means so much to our founder, Kate Hutchinson, here. 

It’s not just about growing green jobs—it’s about supporting workers and communities through change. And that starts with knowing where we stand today.