What we know about globaldev salaries for climate roles

Salaries for global development roles depend on factors ranging from location to type of organization or sector. Most organizations have salary grids to structure how much they pay their employees, but many of them are not made public. Since last year, Devex has encouraged recruiters to include salary information in their job postings, which we make highly visible to job seekers. Our aim is to provide insights to both job seekers and recruiters and foster a globaldev culture of salary transparency. About 24% of all October postings on Devex’s job board included salary information. As part of an ongoing effort to highlight salary trends across the development sector, this article focuses on salaries that have been offered for climate and environment-related jobs so far this year on Devex’s jobs board. Our analysis includes nearly 300 full-time staff positions and long-term consulting assignments — with a minimum contract length of 12 months — that have shared an annual salary figure in job postings. Most of the organizations included in this analysis of climate roles that have included salary information — or have public salary scales from which Devex has retrieved the salary range — are multilateral organizations and government agencies. Meanwhile, some private firms and nonprofits shared salaries for some positions with Devex, but not with the wider public. We’ve included broad information on these roles where we think it offers relevant information for job seekers. Editor’s note: Salary information that was shared in a currency other than U.S. dollars has been converted to U.S. dollars in order to facilitate fair analysis and comparisons. Climate salaries within the US The highest-paid climate positions published on Devex in 2022 so far are based in the United States. Beyond World Bank and U.S. government agencies' roles, many of the higher-paid positions have been at private firms or NGOs. This includes a posting for a vice president of the climate department at a data research organization with an annual budget range of $225,000 to $285,000, and another vice president for a strategic partnerships position at a climate-focused charitable organization offering $190,000 to $230,000. Over a third of the climate positions with salary data based in the U.S. have a minimum salary of $100,000 and only 4% have a maximum salary below $60,000. Below are some examples of the climate-related, U.S.-based positions posted on Devex this year and their accompanying salaries: U.S. International Development Finance Corporation — Environmental impact analyst Max salary: $138,868 Location: Washington, D.C. Sequoia Climate Fund — Program officer, China, and Southeast Asia Max salary: $128,000 Location: Irvine, California Abt Associates Inc. — Communications lead, chief climate officer group Max salary: $127,177 Location: Rockville, Maryland PeaceCorps — Program specialist (climate) Max salary: $108,850 Location: United States World Resources Institute — Climate transparency project manager Max salary: $106,000 Location: Washington, D.C. Climate roles outside the US: Multilateral organizations The majority of the climate jobs included in this analysis (65%) were based outside the U.S. Of these, many corresponded to multilateral organizations such as the United Nations Environmental Programme, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. Below are some examples of the climate-related positions that are based outside the U.S. from a range of multilateral organizations and their respective salaries: World Bank — Senior environmental specialist, environment, natural resources and blue economy unit Max salary: $214,900 Location: Jamaica • Other World Bank positions offered earlier this year, which included a senior disaster risk management specialist in Japan, and a senior environmental specialist in India, were among the highest-paid climate positions based outside of the U.S., with a salary range for that category between $185,000 — $214,000. United Nations Environment Programme — Senior program management officer Max salary: $145,170 Location: Kenya • Other UNEP jobs with the same salary range — $115,949 - $145,170 — included a project manager position in Saudi Arabia and a senior coordination officer in Samoa. African Development Bank — Chief natural resources officer Max salary: $128,748 Location: Côte d’Ivoire • Around the same time this job was published, AfDB was also hiring a chief land officer in the same category. African Union Commission — Project coordinator (GCCA+ EC) Max salary: $107,026 Location: Gabon • The AU secured European Union funding for the implementation of the Global Climate Change Alliance Plus program (GCCA+) and earlier this year was looking to hire a few positions under its umbrella including a finance and administration officer for $70,474 and a policy officer in charge of monitoring and evaluation for $80,801. Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme — Pollution adviser Max salary: $74,814 Location: Samoa • SPREP is an executing entity for the Global Environment Facility, the European Union and Agence Française de Développement, and an accredited entity for the Green Climate Fund. They are regularly recruiting project officers or consultants to implement their projects. Climate roles outside the US: NGOs Private firms and development consultancies appear to be less likely to share salary ranges with job seekers than multilaterals. There are some exceptions, though, including Chemonics, which so far this year has shared the salaries of their U.S.-based positions such as one for a senior practice associate for environment and natural resources with a range of $55,760 to $69,700. On the other hand, NGOs seem slightly more transparent. For example, Birdlife International was looking to hire a head for their forest program in the United Kingdom with an annual salary of $58,884, while Islamic Relief Worldwide was recruiting a climate adviser for their advocacy campaign for £38,992 in the UK, around $46,224, or £31,194, around $36.980, for those based in Pakistan or Kenya. Below are some examples of climate-related positions that are based outside the U.S. from a range of nonprofits and NGOs and their salaries: Environmental Defense Fund — Associate vice president, jurisdictional alliances and market development, natural climate solutions Max salary: $154,732 Location: Remote in Mexico, Peru, or the U.S. Commonwealth Secretariat — Commonwealth regional climate finance adviser, Caribbean Max salary: $66,554 Location: Guyana ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability — Head of climate action Max salary: $56,870 Location: Germany C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group — City advisor, climate change mitigation Max salary: $38,365 Location: Tanzania International Development Law Organization — Field project coordinator, climate and gender Salary max: $29,950 Location: Burkina Faso Interested in salary transparency and other globaldev career topics? We’d like to know more about what you think. Fill out this short survey to share your thoughts.