Bized skills and knowledge are fundamental to managing climate change, according to the Australian Business Deans Council, which sets out necessary governance and operational expertise industry will need from graduates in a new report.
Amendments to the Corporation Act, for example, require large businesses and asset owners to lodge annual reports on climate-related risk, assured by their financial statement auditor.
Tasks for accountants will include reporting greenhouse emissions and financial managers will have to assess business risks. However, the ABDC warns “very few” now have the skills required.
More broadly, business need to be ready for carbon reduction targets and business transformation “across entire supply chains.”
The Deans accordingly identify 20 discipline-based skill sets for “climate ready” graduates, ranging from the specific, such as, business analytics and energy management to the amorphous – “climate literacy. ”
In particular they point to opportunities for bized graduates in traditional disciplines:
- Accounting: climate financial disclosure legislation and market regulation
- Financial services: data analysis, machine learning, emissions reporting
- Management: there are “acute gaps” in carbon accounting and climate analysis
- Transition skills: “an urgent need for skilled workers … and clearer policy frameworks and roadmaps to guide skill development in a net-zero economy.”
While foundational skills and professional roles may stay similar, there will be a shift in demanded skills towards capability to achieve positive climate outcomes.
The Deans accordingly point to new job types, including;
- climate and sustainability strategists
- chief circularity officers: “across the business, value chain and markets”
- sustainability entrepreneurs
- climate risk experts
- sustainability-focused data scientists
- climate advisers for SMEs, particularly primary producers.
As to what business schools need do; “climate change should be central to all business education. It is reshaping industries in a similar way to the communications revolution in the 1990s.”
