Sydney  - The introduction of a carbon emissions trading scheme will threaten millions of jobs in Australia in the short term, but equipping the workforce with new, greener job skills will create more employment opportunities in the long run, says the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) report released Thursday.

The CSIRO report, Growing the Green Collar Economy, released by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and the Dusseldorp Skills Forum (DSF), calls for bold steps to ensure overall employment growth is not imperiled by emissions trading.

"Climate change is both our greatest economic risk and, ironically, a great economic opportunity. But only if the Australian workforce is properly skilled and resourced to underpin truly sustainable industries and workplaces," Oona Nielssen, executive director of DSF, said.

"Little attention has been paid so far to this issue - yet it's one of the biggest transformations posed by climate change. Current efforts are clearly insufficient. It's about re-skilling and re-making the workforce for the age of sustainability," Nielssen said.

The report's modelling shows that despite the introduction of an emissions trading scheme in 2010, employment will grow by between 2.6 and 3.3 million jobs by 2025.

"Australian industry will have to turn blue collar to green collar. For example, where we've got heavy greenhouse pollution in, for instance, our coal generation sector, that's going to be a slower growth area than renewables," ACF head Don Henry told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

"[In] some of the traditional sectors like energy generation use, fuel generation and use, manufacturing - there's opportunities for re-skilling there to help our existing economy clean up," Henry told the ABC.

Demand for new skills will be most pressing in renewable energy, in the design and construction of green buildings and in manufacturing and maintaining cleaner vehicles and transport systems.

Jobs in sectors that are currently high carbon emitters, like transport, construction, agriculture, manufacturing and mining are forecast to grow strongly in the next decade, "but will need to be turned into 'green collar' jobs in a clean economy," Henry said.

The report urges federal and state governments to develop strategies to re-train and provide the green skills needed by the 3.25 million workers in industries that currently have "high environmental impacts," if Australia has to meet its target of 60 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

"The government is already acting when it comes to skills and training more generally. It's part of the education revolution, it's an essential part of the proposals we took to the Australian people at the last election," Treasurer Wayne Swan told the ABC. (dpa)