“We’re creating all these jobs — we need the workforce,” Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) said at a Tuesday conference.   

“We’ve done a lot to really be very strategic and intentional about building that workforce pipeline, in partnership with industry and with our community colleges,” the governor added. 

Hobbs was speaking in a panel discussion at the 2024 Western Prosperity Forum, held in Phoenix this week by the bipartisan Western Governors’ Association. 

Don Graves, deputy secretary of the Department of Commerce, shared a similar perspective, stressing the need “to integrate workforce development and economic development.”  

“This interweaving, if you will, the interconnection, is essential,” he said.  

“Modern, industrial and place-based economic development will fail unless we create a sustainable pipeline of those with the skills and the training that they need,” Graves added. 

Integral to building a diverse workforce are employer-led partnerships, steered by community partners, such as labor unions, education institutions and local organizations, according to Graves.  

Hobbs particularly touted Arizona’s recent success in bolstering its construction and semiconductor manufacturing industries. 

“We are number one in the nation for new semiconductor investments, with more than $100 billion and 15,500 jobs announced since 2021,” Hobbs said. “This is huge.”  

Noting that hundreds of thousands of jobs are being created nationwide, Graves reiterated the importance of ensuring “that we have the workforce that we need to meet those jobs.”  

“Workforce development is going to be absolutely vital to our success, not just at a state level but across the country,” Graves said. 

Welcome to The Hill’s Sustainability newsletter, I’m Sharon Udasin — every week we follow the latest moves in the growing battle over sustainability in the U.S. and around the world.

Increasingly intense Siberian wildfires could worsen air quality not only in local regions, but also across large swaths of East Asia that are downwind of the fires, a new study has found.  

Price of pollution: The costs associated with related air pollution-linked deaths could climb to $10 billion annually, according to the study, published on Wednesday in Earth’s Future. 

“The more Siberian wildfires occur, the more air pollution is present in those regions, which likely increases mortality and welfare losses there,” the authors wrote.  

Aerosols on the rise: Researchers from three universities in Japan performed numerical simulations to assess the broader impacts of the Siberian wildfires.  

• They looked at how a further surge in the strength of these blazes could affect air quality, premature mortality and the economy.
• The model focused particularly on a hypothetical rise in atmospheric aerosols — air pollution particles — under present and near-future warming scenarios.  

Particles that won’t stay put: The scientists found that the havoc aerosol emissions can wreak are wide-ranging.  

• Much of the northern hemisphere could undergo atmospheric cooling, as aerosol particles reflect sunlight.
• Meanwhile, large parts of East Asia downwind from the fires could suffer from worsened air quality.  

Adapting to the uncontrollable: “It is hard to prevent the occurrence of Siberian wildfires in such large areas,” co-author Teppei Yasunari, an associate professor at Hokkaido University, said in a statement.  

Yasunari called for greater action “to limit the effects of the Siberian wildfires somehow to prevent excess deaths, respiratory and other illnesses, and economic losses.” 

Warming warning: “Our findings send a critical message about the broad effect of increased particulate matter due to massive wildfires in the atmosphere on climate and air quality,” Yasunari said.   

Such developments “will become ever more significant as the worldwide changes due to global warming proceed,” he added.