Cities are key actors in mitigating climate change and shaping the green transition through regulatory services and skills. Using the concept of smart and green city in existing and new urban environments contributes to achieving the ambitions of the European Green Deal.
This policy brief presents a Cedefop skills foresight study, which looked at occupations and skills that help cities to become smarter and greener and the role that education and training can play in their development.
When invited to reflect on how to move towards smart and green cities (GSC), experts highlighted the complex interaction between technological, societal and environmental trends and challenges; this requires a cultural shift among citizens and local administrations and institutions towards greater collaboration and partnerships. This comes in addition to municipal staff with knowledge of green technologies and understanding of innovative green solutions, supported by regular refinement, which are prerequisites for cities to procure, develop and deliver services (e.g. water, waste management) in a more environmentally friendly way. The“intelligence” of cities is supported by digitalisation, which allows cities to take decisions based on big data collection and analysis, also boosting green innovation. In order to fully benefit from such technologies, city administrations need to commit to using them in the context of greening and empower their staff through adequate training in digital skills.
The complex nature of the GSCs will increase the demand for other knowledge-intensive occupations, in particular those related to the use of smart and green technologies. Infrastructure and software tools can be used in almost all areas of a municipality’s administration, including energy supply, mobility/transport, waste and e-services for citizens. Artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, big data analytics and online platforms have the potential to disrupt the way municipal services are delivered, while the emergence of twin digital cities is likely to transform city governance and planning.
The demandfor ‘skills for the twin transition’ will be higher, as more expertise is needed to customise and apply green technology and that a more fundamental understanding of environmental and sustainability issues is needed compared to the past, for example for ICT professionals. The new work roles identified in existing research on smart cities include:
- smart city planner
- it Manager for Smart Cities and IT Officer for Smart Cities
- artificial intelligence scientists and machine learning
- data scientists
- cybersecurity analysts
- application and software developers
- network support engineers and civil engineers
- digital marketers
- geospatial scientists and cloud mapping and architects;
- energy efficiency engineers or integration engineers.
While many of these roles involve the application of advanced IT, this is not the case for all the jobs needed to support green activities in a GSC. Examples of less IT-based jobs include professional tree maintenance staff, the urban farmer and the solar panel installer.