Picture Your Future: A Participatory Photography Project on the National Nature Service (Wales)
Currently in Wales we have a major skills gap. This is only going to widen as we move to green technologies and green jobs. We know that if Wales is to be prosperous, we need our workers to have the skills for the jobs of the future.
Wales TUC suggests 60,000 green jobs could be created in Wales if we invest properly in the green economy. What are green jobs? The definition is wide and varying and can be anything from home insulation, reforestation and natural flood defence work, to forest schooling. There are new and exciting opportunities if we take them.
These include:
- Over 4000 jobs in house retrofit
- Almost 6000 jobs in renewable energy
- Almost 5000 in reforestation and flood defence
- Over 3000 in research and development of green technologies
I have recommended that the Welsh Government seek to deliver a National Nature Service to respond to the nature and climate emergencies and help address the economic and social justice fallout of the pandemic.
This would provide a framework to rapidly establish new and future focused opportunities around skills, jobs and the restoration of Wales’ natural environment, while also better aligning the existing mechanisms in place.
Together with the Berggruen Institute’s Future of Democracy Program, my office held a virtual assembly called Picture Your Future which brought together young people to consider the structure, aims, and objectives of the National Nature Service.
The assembly sought to engage young social and environmental activists in a deliberative process around climate action at the local and national level. One of the key insights from participants was that given the scope and impacts of climate change, there should be a focus on “ensuring a National Nature Service that’s accessible for everyone.”
Read the full report below.
