Microsoft President Flags Talent Crisis To Resolve Climate Change

Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) President Brad Smith urged companies, schools, and governments to increase training workers for new and redesigned roles tackling the climate crisis.

Microsoft, which pledged to remove more carbon than it emits by 2030, says the lack of skills in areas like carbon accounting, green procurement, and supply chain management threatened the progress needed to arrest global warming.

Microsoft plans to develop and share more training resources through its LinkedIn business, work with United Nations and International Monetary Fund groups and NGOs, and convene a conference of corporate chief sustainability officers to share best practices.

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Smith will discuss the effort at the Web Summit conference today in Lisbon. Roughly 3,900 companies around the world have signed up for climate pledges.

LinkedIn did a study a year ago that showed the number of jobs in the economy requiring sustainability skills is growing by 8% yearly. Still, the number of people in the workforce with these skills is growing by only 6% yearly.

Microsoft saw employer investments in employee training decline after the year 2000 and have been stagnating ever since.

Microsoft sells software for organizations to track their environmental impact.

Still, companies need more than technology to address global warming, said Smith, announcing plans to develop green education materials, including on LinkedIn, which Microsoft owns, Reuters reported.

Wednesday's study by Microsoft and Boston Consulting Group found that of many corporate environmental leaders, 68% were internal hires whose team members lacked sustainability-related degrees more often than not.

There will be new jobs and existing jobs, he said, Bloomberg reported.

While Microsoft itself has grown its sustainability headcount to about 250 employees from only 30 largely in the past three years, having the right workforce to deliver on its carbon-reduction goals remains a challenge, Smith said.

They are people doing carbon accounting and could include those who have done financial accounting, but now they will be financial accountants and carbon accountants at the same time.

People have to change the procurement process, he highlighted. They have to redesign those reports from their suppliers. They then need to partner with their suppliers to help them drive down their carbon emissions.

Price Action: MSFT shares traded lower by 0.32% at $219.40 on the last check Thursday.