Inflation Reduction Act Will Create Millions Of Climate Job Opportunities Women Can Seize

A new analysis by the BlueGreen Alliance and the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has calculated that the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by President Biden in 2022 will create over 9 million “climatetech” jobs by 2032. Based on data from the Congressional Budget Office, the bill’s text, it says they focused on jobs created by the climate, energy, and environmental provisions in the bill. They estimated those to be created at about 900.000 per year, and include jobs in communities where coal-fired plants or mines are or will be closed. These are male-dominated roles but there’s a silver lining for women.

The analysis was done by calculating jobs to be created in electrification, transportation, building, manufacturing, environmental justice, lands, and agriculture programs, breaking the data down into jobs created by direct public funding, and those created by private spending. The private spending jobs would come from leveraging the public funding and tax credits, such as for purchasing a new or used electric vehicle. It might also come from stipulations in the Inflation Reduction Act, for example, that the eligible vehicles be assembled and mostly sourced in the U.S..

Which jobs are counted?

The report includes jobs that require a college degree and those that don’t in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jobs, and they explain how many they estimate from each provision of the bill. But we don’t know which jobs specifically they counted, for example, if they counted jobs in communications and human resources, or finance, that is, non-technical, roles. We do know that all organizations need all types of expertise – and add them as they grow. The report said they low-balled the numbers, explaining that, “We deliberately assume here a relatively low leveraging rate for the relevant IRA programs.”

We also don’t know if they counted jobs in the corporate divisions being created or expanded to handle this work. For example, sources say that Deloitte’s ESG and Sustainability practice group has grown 15-fold in less than a year. A basic search of job postings with these titles gives a sense of their proliferation over the past few years.

Hidden opportunity for women to get to the C-suite

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that most of these kinds of jobs are traditionally held by men. For example, as of 2021, 78% of civil engineers are men, 87.2% of construction jobs are held by men, 88.3% of electricians are men, and Deloitte reports that women hold only about 25% of auto sector jobs.

But these new incentives and funding sources coming from the Inflation Reduction Act – coupled with those from the new Infrastructure and Jobs Act and CHIPS and Jobs Act, and the pressure from regulators including the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) impending new climate risk disclosure rules – provide an opportunity for women, according to Kristina Wyatt, who led the SEC’s task force that developed those rules.

In an exclusive interview on Electric Ladies Podcast recently, Wyatt said that a lot of corporate sustainability and environment-social-governance (ESG) roles will gain greater influence and importance as a result of both the new SEC rules and this new legislation, and that those roles (e.g. Vice President or Chief Sustainability Officer, CSO) have historically been held by women. They also often lack significant staff, budget, resources, or influence.

But, she said, that could be about to change. The elevation of climate-related issues to the board and C-level is an opportunity for women to in turn be elevated to the C-suite, Wyatt argues. To do so, she emphasized, these women need to make sure they have the financial management acumen.

“What we need is to have these women who are sitting over in the CSOs office, to make sure that they've got the chops on the financial piece,” Wyatt said, so they are prepared to seize these opportunities.

Addressing women directly, she added that, “If you need to, take courses. Learn about how to read financial statements. Get very familiar with your company’s financials. Understand balance sheets. Understand income statements. Understand cash flow statements and how they work, so that you can really speak the financial talk and understand how your sustainability issues integrate with your financial issues.”

Wyatt gleaned, “Then, we may actually see a generation of women who move into the C-suite by virtue of having been over in that CSO silo and all of a sudden becoming really important to the discussion.”