New CO2 standards passed by the European Parliament this year will affect 108,000 direct jobs alone. Ultimately, 600,000 of the 2,4 million jobs in the industry will be put at risk by the move to electric cars as their engines contain six times fewer components than combustion engines.

Major producers have already started to make these cuts. Volkswagen have announced plans to cut 7,000 jobs as part of a move to electric production, while Ford is to shed 12,000 jobs in Europe.

New jobs will be created in connected industries like software development, electronics and alternative fuels, however they will require different skill sets than the jobs set to be lost.

industriAll Europe calls on politicians to deliver on the Paris Agreement’s commitment to the “imperative of just transition” to a low carbon economy through policies which maintain and increase the employability of workers in the sector and the industry more generally. 

The new European Commission should implement a ‘Just Climate Transition Programme’ for all carbon-dependent sectors and regions which coordinates funds and policies to limit the disruption of the necessary transformation of industry on its workers.

Click here to read the full policy brief.