Masdar’s Ahmed Baghoum shares importance of a green energy transition

A green transition will require the cooperation of all sectors, the reskilling of workers and the continued deployment of renewables, Ahmed Baghoum, Executive Director, Human Capital and Services, Masdar, said during a virtual panel organized by the EU-GCC Business Council.

The webinar explored the findings of the T20 Policy Brief, which outlines recommendations on how governments can support the private sector to deliver economic growth, create jobs, and support climate action, as we continue to shoulder the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The clean energy sector last year saw the creation of 11.5 million jobs globally, with solar PV projects contributing to 3.8 million jobs. According to Baghoum, this incremental growth year-on-year will continue to grow with the reskilling of workers from fossil fuel industries to renewables:

“The greatest opportunity for the transfer of skills is the rapid development of renewables. In the GCC alone, the industry is expected to generate 200,000 jobs in the next ten years. Masdar is proud to be contributing, and indeed leading these efforts across our projects in more than 30 countries, this year’s development of the green REIT, a sustainable real estate fund that will help investors invest and develop sustainability projects, and our pioneering work on Masdar City, one of the world’s most sustainable communities.”

Masdar has doubled the capacity of its renewable energy portfolio within the last two years, investing or committing to invest in projects with a gross value of almost 20 billion US dollars and a generation capacity of 10.7GW, enough electricity to power approximately 9 million homes.

This scaling up of investments in clean energy projects will result in the creation of an additional 19 million jobs by 2030.

Watch the full session here.