Know better. Do better.

In 2025, the world has been having its cake and eating it when it comes to energy.

Driven by solar power, renewable energy has surged at a record rate. Unfortunately for the global climate, emissions from planet-heating coal, oil and natural gas also reached a record high.

Before cleaner energy can take the lead, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that skills shortages are threatening new developments.

The report said for every new employee in the sector, 2.4 energy workers in advanced economies are nearing retirement. The biggest skill gaps are seen in the construction of new infrastructure, which impacts fast-growing clean energy projects the most.

These complaints are longstanding in the skilled trades, but seem to be more severe than ever. So I asked Jane Cohen, a lead analyst on the report, what it would take to finally fix it.

"It's really a combination of policies that target these short-term, acute skills needs with the longer-term policies that can … build that pipeline," she told me at an online news conference.

Cohen pointed to Spain, which made sure the country's industrial policy aligned with educational institutions and the energy sector, mapping and understanding the skills that new energy infrastructure would need.

In the shorter term, she said Chile noticed a gap in skills to build transmission lines, so is quickly retraining ex-coal workers to plug the gap.

But more broadly, such training schemes and investment in workforce development are too limited in scale to meet surging demand, especially in emerging economies, the report said.

If the world's drive for clean energy is to keep up its momentum, the world needs to get more serious about staffing it. But with whom?

When you think about a worker in a coal mine or on an oil rig, you generally picture an older man.

And for good reason: traditional energy jobs have been male-dominated and concentrated in certain regions where raw materials are in large supply - from the U.S. Rust Belt to India's polluted energy capital Singrauli.

But the energy sector is changing. New energy forms like solar and wind are spread out, grid upgrades require jobs in new places, and modern energy jobs entail a broad array of technical skills.

That, says the IEA, means more should be done to tap new communities for talent.

"More jobs are being created in energy than ever before, and more jobs are going to be created. That's good news," said Brian Motherway, head of Energy Efficiency and Inclusive Transitions at the IEA, at the press briefing.

"But how do we make sure that we convert that into proper, good quality jobs for people who need them: for people in poorer regions, for women, for younger people, for people who may be seeing their existing job less secure?"

An IEA survey of training providers suggests this will entail addressing barriers beyond more obvious things like pay and qualifications. For women, for example, the most frequently cited challenges were a lack of flexible work arrangements, childcare policies and mentoring programmes.

Motherway said this underlines the need for actors from governments and employers to unions and educational institutions to act on the data and put new systems in place today.

"Spend a little on skills and investment, and create millions of really good quality jobs," he said.

Thank you for following our reporting in 2025. The team and I really appreciate your continued interest and support.

Look forward to seeing you next year,

Jack