Canberra students want jobs that will tackle climate change

Core environmental courses offered to undergraduates by ANU's Fenner School of Environment & Society have seen hikes of 14 per cent through to 113 per cent from 2018.

The school registered increases of 14 per cent for Environment & Society, 27 per cent for Environmental Statistics, 113 per cent for Australia's Environment and 47 per cent for Sustainable Development.

"I think there's been a lot of societal pressures for awareness increase in the last few years," the Fenner School's Dr Craig Strong said.

Increased focus on the impacts of climate change on people's personal lives is also feeding through students who are eager to equip themselves, he said.

"The general students that we see come through these days are very in tune with what's going on in society."

Meantime, the University of Canberra reported a 21 per cent hike in enrolments for its Bachelor of Environmental Science, and 12 per cent increased enrolment in the broader Bachelor of Science from 2018.

Uni Canberra also saw over 200 students enrol in its Climate Change and Sustainable Business Futures course this year, up by over 30 per cent on past enrolment.

"One of the biggest investments you can make into achieving the global goals - Paris and the Sustainable Development Goals - is investing in your career, it is," Chief Operating Officer at Mineral Carbonation International (MCi), Sophia Hamblin Wang said.

The company converts carbon dioxide emissions into solid materials, which can be used in construction and building materials, chemicals, cements, concretes and household consumer products.

MCi recently secured financial backing from Japanese ITOCHU Corporation.

"This kind of thing didn't exist when I was at uni, so I couldn't have planned to go into something like that, it's something that has emerged," she said.

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Businesses driving climate agendas are stimulating interest in climate-focused jobs from those in their early career stages, Ms Hamblin Wang said.

"We've seen a lot of interest coming from new grads, and people looking for mentorship and that kind of thing."

Top-down incentivisation for achieving net-zero goals is a change Ms Hamblin Wang had observed in the last 18 months.

"What we're also seeing is that the largest companies and leading companies in the world, when it comes to climate are starting to have people on their boards who are responsible for climate change and sustainability."

"That is probably one of the biggest impacts, the biggest levers for change that we'll see when it comes to emissions reduction on a corporate level," she said.

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