Gender Mainstreaming the European Union Energy Transition: History
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Contributor:
Paula Carroll

The EU has set out its ambitions for an equitable transition to clean secure energy. It has also set out it objectives for gender equality. There is a disconnect between EU gender equality and clean energy plans and that gender has yet to be mainstreamed into the EU energy transition. This research identifies opportunities to mainstream gender into EU energy policies by linking to EU gender equality objectives, and connecting to gender-energy research themes.

  • gender equality
  • gender mainstreaming
  • energy transition

1. Introduction

The Paris accord to keep the global temperature increase to below 1.5° is a reminder of the urgent challenges that require our concerted efforts. There is an urgent need for the energy transition to support climate change mitigation initiatives, and to support sustainable economic and societal objectives. Strategic priorities for gender equality, energy and climate intersect, and challenge us to find innovative ways to address these goals simultaneously. At the core of these challenges is our dependency on energy. Energy is a driver of economic development and requirement for participation in economic activity and daily life. The types of fuels used to serve energy needs is closely connected with climate change. The energy trilemma is the set of connected problems to create a balanced energy system that is secure, clean and equitable. It requires a multidisciplinary whole systems approach to address the trilemma. Gender equality is a cross-cutting priority, the question of gender equality in the energy transition remains open.
Four axes of the Energy Transformation are often highlighted; the four D’s of Decarbonisation, Decentralisation, Digitalisation and Democratisation. A fifth D for Deregulation is sometimes considered which aims to facilitate competition and ensure consumers have access to affordable energy options. Each axis of the energy transition contains potential opportunities and challenges for how the energy transition can be achieved. These axes cannot be considered in a univariate fashion. To achieve a secure, clean, and equitable energy system, all intersecting interests must be considered jointly.
Gaps and barriers in regulations, standards and network codes to energy citizen participation in the energy transition are discussed in [1], while prosumer community groups and prosumer relationships are considered in [2]. Both technical innovations and social innovations are necessary for the long-term success of the clean energy transition. However, neither article touch on the role of gender in the clean energy transition.
European Union (EU) energy policies aim to deliver on the EU’s Paris Agreement commitments through a Clean Energy Transition which encourages greater efficiency, and the use of low carbon energy sources to replace fossil fuels. The EU clean and fair energy transition aims to create a more secure, competitive and sustainable energy system that supports economic growth and improves the quality of life of its citizens [3]. The clean energy transition in the EU is sustainability driven, the EU aims to achieve climate neutrality by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) net emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 and to be the first climate neutral continent by 2050. The EU clean energy transition will transform the EU energy system to one with reduced reliance on fossil fuels, improved energy efficiency and increased use of renewable energy sources (RES) and electric vehicles and other clean-energy transport options [4].
EU Clean energy for all Europeans legislative acts aim to place the citizen at the centre of the energy transition [3]. The EU sets out how it plans to tackle climate and environmental challenges in the European Green Deal [5], and sets out inter-connected proposals to revise and update EU climate and energy legislation such as the Renewable Energy Directive, and Energy Efficiency Directive in [4]. Each EU member state indicates how it plans to achieve climate and energy targets in its National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP). Sectoral targets specify how each member state plans to decarbonise heat and transport, and increase the use of RES. The participation and engagement of individual and collectives of citizens is seen as key to achieving these targets since changes in how we heat our homes and buildings, how we travel to school and work, and whether households adopt low carbon technologies such as electric vehicles, heatpumps and photovoltaic panels are decisions for citizens supported by their municipal and government policies and available infrastructures.
Gender equality is a core principle of the EU. EU President Ursula von der Leyen has been quoted as saying:
Using only half of the population, half of the ideas or half of the energy is not good enough.
However, neither the Green Deal, not the Clean Energy documents make any explicit reference to gender or sex, but refer instead to European citizens and to vulnerable European citizens, or vulnerable households. There is no commonly accepted or widely agreed legal definition of vulnerable persons, so there is a risk that actions targeting vulnerable citizens may be ineffective in addressing gender equality. Women, and particularly older women, are at a higher risk of energy poverty than men [6].
The EU has also set out a gender equality strategy for the years 2020–2025 which aims to make concrete progress on gender equality in the EU [7]. It specifies three high level objectives to work with EU countries and foster institutional change to achieve (1) gender equality in scientific careers; (2) gender balance in decision making; and (3) integration of the gender dimension into the content of research and innovation. This research explores how these gender equality objectives may manifest in the EU energy transition.
Gender has been considered extensively in relation to the global south [8]. However there is a gap, gender may not be explicitly articulated as a component of any of the energy transition axes within EU energy policy documents [9]. A better understanding of gender issues is key to understanding the actors and their agency in the energy transition.

2. Gender Dimensions of the Energy Transition in the European Union (EU) 

Paying attention to gender issues is likely to bring more justice and equality in the energy transition [10]. Feminism does not aim to exclude men, but aims to ensure women are included. The themes addressed in the academic literature highlight gaps and opportunities to mainstream gender into EU energy policy. Former U.N. climate envoy Mary Robinson said:
Climate change is a human-made problem and must have a feminist solution.
IEEE publications deal with technologies in electrical engineering, computing, power and energy. As noted in [11], sustainable energy transitions comprise both socio-technical and social justice dimensions but are treated as distinct phenomena. The same issue is observed in this research. Papers in the social sciences address gender issues, but there is yet little evidence of the mainstreaming of gender into the energy transition technical literature.
Many papers address the role of gender in the Global South. However, gender is not explicitly articulated in EU policies on the clean energy transition. For example, the EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change refers to the Gender Equality (GE) strategy in relation to Africa and less developed countries but not to GE within the EU [12].
The gender blindness noted in [10] is a lack of awareness of gender inequalities, and can further entrench stereotypes and inequalities. There has been a lack of consideration of the role of gender even in egalatarian societies [13]. Gendered differences may be perceived as individual characteristics rather than practices of social differentiation in society. Women still face persistent barriers to entry and advancement but most men working in the energy sector are unaware of those challenges. 75% of women perceive the existence of gender related barriers, while only 40% of men seem aware [14]. Not taking gender explicitly into account can benefit the groups that are already in a more privileged position, such as men, who are already more active in the energy value chain [15].
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed persistent gender inequalities and highlighted society’s reliance on women and particularly their care work
Reflecting on the EU GEAP objectives for gender equality in scientific careers, the renewable energy field may exert an appeal on women that the fossil fuel industry has lacked [14]. Achieving the EU GEAP aim on scientific careers and getting women into STEM to participate in the clean energy transition is a significant challenge. Care needs to be taken to maintain the pipeline and ensure if women are attracted in, they receive equal opportunities for career progression and sufficient life balance supports to be able to avail of those opportunities. The ability to stay in a given job and opportunities for professional growth are shaped by a number of factors. Care needs to be taken that addressing the skills gap to implement the transition not be simply portrayed as an opportunity for women to (re)join the labour force as the renewables industry has a vested interest in tapping into this talent pool. GEAPs, gender audits, networking and mentoring programmes and other best practices suggested in [16] can help to improve the situation.
Reflecting on the EU GEAG gender balance in decision making aim, I note that the gender pay gap reduces the opportunity for women for a more active involvement at local level in cooperatives where capital investments are required. A gender dimension is most visible in this research in the concepts of energy citizenship and participation in energy communities or prosumerism. However, if prosuming is socially perceived as a male domain, and the energy transition is portrayed as a purely engineering or technical problem, it may create barriers to an inclusive decarbonised energy future. There is a danger of perceived inclusively. Women who are in the minority in LECs and the energy sector may not have real opportunities to be heard. Policymakers might need to take more direct action and adopt regulations and incentives to make the jointly owned (solar) energy generation accessible to more groups in society [17]. The capability to affiliate [18] affects the opportunity to participate in initiatives such as renewable energy communities and prosumerism [19]. Women may prefer to work in cooperatives, where through collaborative effort, they can overcome challenges, such as lack of technical knowledge [17]. Women are a minority both as members and managers in LECs [17], hence their concerns may not be fully included. The decentralised nature of renewable energy brings energy choices to the household and community level, where women tend to have a greater voice [14].
The EU GEAP aim on research and innovation may be one of the most challenging issues to address. The four themes identified in the SLR of (1) energy citizen engagement, (2) attitudes and willingness to pay, (3) social justice and sustainability, and (4) energy use, suggest future research directions to be explored.
Linkages between EU strategy aims, governance, and EU and national implementation plans need to be monitored. The scarcity of gender-disaggregated data is a major handicap in the effort to enhance awareness of the challenges and to improve the actual gender balance in renewable energy. Without data, there is no visibility. Furthermore, without visibility, it is difficult to establish policy priorities [14]. Even though residents see their home as gender neutral, certain zones of the house are perceived as more male or female than others [13]. The gendered spaces of the household and the gendered division of household labour may influence how women and men interact with clean energy technologies. Daily household tasks use 24.8% of all the energy produced in the EU [8]. Housework is unevenly distributed between women and men, almost one working woman in two spent one hour a day on caring activities, compared with one out of three working men [20]. Women may be more receptive to energy conservation efforts and willing to change their everyday behaviour to save energy. Care needs to be taken to ensure women are not negatively affected by new energy practices, where energy conservation may lead to heavier workloads [13].
Encouraging female participants to lead funding proposals [21] may lead to novel perspectives of the energy transition being created, while the resources in [6] may help gender unaware researchers to develop a gender dimension in their research.

This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/en15218087

References

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  3. European Commission Directorate-General for Energy. Clean Energy for all Europeans; Publications Office of the European Union: Luxembourg, 2019.
  4. European Commission. ‘Fit for 55’: Delivering the EU’s 2030 Climate Target on the Way to Climate Neutrality; Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions; Document 52021DC0550, 550; European Commission: Luxembourg, 2021.
  5. European Commission. The European Green Deal; Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions; Document 52019DC0640, 65; European Commission: Luxembourg, 2019.
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  16. European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. She Figures 2021: Gender in Research and Innovation: Statistics and Indicators; Publications Office of the European Union: Luxembourg, 2021.
  17. Lazoroska, D.; Palm, J.; Bergek, A. Perceptions of participation and the role of gender for the engagement in solar energy communities in Sweden. Energy Sustain. Soc. 2021, 11, 35.
  18. Bartiaux, F.; Maretti, M.; Cartone, A.; Biermann, P.; Krasteva, V. Sustainable energy transitions and social inequalities in energy access: A relational comparison of capabilities in three European countries. Glob. Transit. 2019, 1, 226–240.
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