Accelerating the shift: industry transformation training for a climate-neutral future

Background & Purpose

Accelerating industrial decarbonisation is key to achieve climate neutrality. While key decarbonisation strategies such as electrification, hydrogen and circular economy are already available and increasingly being deployed, decarbonisation efforts need to scale more rapidly in order to fully align with carbon-neutral pathways.

This is especially relevant in regions where industrial growth drives economic development – and potentially emissions. Taking early action can prevent carbon lock-ins and pave the way for sustainable, climate-aligned industrial growth.
While industrial decarbonisation is globally recognised as necessary, it remains relatively new territory for many think tanks. Strengthening their expertise and networks in this area is key to developing strategies and policy recommendations for a global industry transformation.

Against this backdrop, Agora Industry’s five-day intensive training is designed to deepen knowledge, enable the exchange of diverse perspectives, build practical skills and support the development of effective strategies tailored to regional contexts. 

Training Objectives & Methods

On completion of the five-day training, participants will:

• Be able to articulate and apply knowledge on context-specific industry decarbonisation pathways, particularly regarding the techno-economic dimensions of the transition.
• Be equipped to critically assess and effectively communicate policy opportunities for advancing industrial transformation in their countries.
• Have advanced a relevant challenge related to industry decarbonisation — grounded in the realities of participants’ own contexts.
• Have identified relevant opportunities for collaboration and shared activities to build broader transition alliances.

Thematically, the training will support participants in engaging with: 

The big picture: The role of industry decarbonisation in the wider context of the transition to climate neutrality and how it links to the decarbonisation of the energy sector.

Cross-cutting strategies and technologies such as energy efficiency, electrification, or hydrogen and how they are applied in key industrial subsectors such as steel, cement and chemicals.

Policy instruments supporting the transition to climate-neutral industries, including supply and demand-side policies such as carbon pricing or lead markets for low-carbon material.

International trade policy: The role of strategic partnerships for clean value chains and carbon border adjustments for governing trade rules for green products.

Social and financial dimensions: The social implications and financial mechanisms supporting the shift to climate-neutral industrial production, ensuring a just transition.

Methods

The programme features a dynamic mix of interactive expert presentations, hands-on exercises, group work and facilitated discussions. We strive to create a supportive and informal learning environment where participants can learn with and from one another and where they can find a dedicated space to retreat from busy work environments for discussing and creatively testing new ideas together. The workstream during which participants advance an individual question, challenge or industrial decarbonisation idea, is guided by methods from design thinking and change management frameworks.
If thematically suitable, selected participants may be invited to share case studies from their national contexts, which might include preparing a small piece of work in advance.

Your profile

The training primarily targets mid-level professionals with around 4-6 years of relevant work experience from think tanks, civil society organisations (CSOs), and research institutions from ODA-recipient countries who are currently working on industry transformation topics.

As we seek to increase participants’ knowledge and engage in discussing strategies to expand the impact of their institutions’ industry transition work, we ask that participants:

• are already actively engaged in public and policy debates on industry transformation or are seeking to become active in the near future;
• are eager to increase their knowledge and learn together with an international group of participants and trainers;
• are able to outline how they already advance the discussions and developments on industry transformation in their respective countries/regions or how they plan to do so in the future.
• are interested in becoming part of our global network of training alumni.

Location & Cost

The training will take place from 15 – 19 March 2027 in Berlin, Germany

Hosted at the Agora Think Tanks office, the full-time training (9:00 to 17:00) includes catered lunches and coffee breaks. Attendance throughout the five days is required for a comprehensive learning experience.

Cost

Participation in the five-day training is free of charge.

In addition, the following costs will be covered:

• Up to seven nights of accommodation near the venue (Saturday, 13 March - Saturday, 20 March 2027);
• Breakfast and lunch during training days; and
• Reimbursement of 70% of the total cost of an economy-class round-trip flight to and from Berlin, up to a maximum of €800 per participant.

Participants must cover:

• Dinner expenses;
• Visa costs (an invitation letter can be made available upon request);
• Local transportation including airport transfers and travel within the city; and
• Personal and incidental expenses (e.g., travel or health insurance).

Application

Applicants must submit:

CV (max 2 pages)

Motivation letter (max 600 words) outlining:

• Your personal goal for this training
• Your / your organisation’s current role in the industry transformation ecosystem;
• How you plan to use the knowledge and skills gained from the training to improve your or your organisation's future activities and impact, and / or
• Your organisation's current (or future) multiplier potential to advance the industry transformation in your countries/regions or networks.

We encourage applications from underrepresented groups in industry policy. To ensure a diversity of participants, we take into consideration factors such as regional and gender representation. Please let us know if you anticipate any barriers to your participation such as disability access, childcare requirements or other needs. While we cannot guarantee a solution, we will do our best to accommodate candidates chosen for the programme.

The application deadline is 18 October 2026. Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis – early applications are therefore advised.

Only applications submitted via the "apply for this job" button will be taken into account.

For any questions, kindly reach out to us at info(at)agora-training(dot)org.