GWO at Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2026

Last week, GWO participated in Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) 2026, engaging with global leaders at the IRENA Assembly and the World Future Energy Summit to advance a shared priority: skilling for the energy transition.

With official ‘observer’ status at the IRENA Assembly, GWO joined ministers, policymakers, CEOs and international organisations to underline the critical need for workforce development to keep pace with industry growth.

With more than 1500 people in attendance, the Assembly focused on the theme of Powering Humanity: Renewable Energy for Shared Prosperity and discussed strategies for accelerating renewable energy across the world, while building economic inclusion, equity, and human wellbeing into any necessary actions.

Jakob Lau Holst, CEO of GWO spoke at several high-level sessions, including IRENA’s Call to Action on Skilling for the Energy Transition and a joint GWO–IRENA session, Global Wind Readiness: Harmonising Wind Standards with Jobs4RE. This multi-stakeholder platform discussed driving international cooperation on education and workforce development, with a focus on skilling policies, standards and curricula.  

During the session Jakob highlighted the importance of international, industry-led training standards and introduced Jobs4RE, a strategic framework that helps governments recognise and integrate existing industry standards into national education and workforce systems.  

Speaking after the events, Jakob said:

“The rapid scale-up of wind energy requires collective effort from governments, associations and commercial players to provide timely skilling and workforce planning that will deliver the energy transition. Our new initiative, presented under the working title “Jobs4RE”, proposes a framework for governments, with examples of national actors applying GWO training to ensure quality and support job creation.”

GWO was also represented by Sergei Perapechka, Head of Partnerships and Network Development, at a roundtable discussion on AI and digitalisation in renewable energy jobs with leading experts and stakeholders from academia, industry and government. The discussion centered around the roles AI could play in a growing renewable energy market and confirmed that skills shortages remain the main challenge, while the continued introduction of technologies will necessitate skills augmentation.

We thank IRENA, The Global Wind Energy Council, Global Renewables Alliance, Global Solar Council, and all partners for the strong dialogue and collaboration. GWO looks forward to working with our members, industry associations, international organisations, governments and other stakeholders worldwide to turn ambition into skilled jobs.

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