By Vitória Wanner, Researcher at EmpoderaClima

The global drive to provide universal access to sustainable energy by 2030 (Sustainable Development Goal 7) is creating numerous opportunities for energy users and suppliers. However, men and women do not benefit equally from these opportunities; energy supply interventions have traditionally been gender blind.

Insights of the last 20 years, as reported by the British Institute of Development Studies Bulletin from February 2020, show that women’s and men’s energy needs diverge, particularly when in comparison with low-income countries. Furthermore, women’s contribution to energy planning, supply and policymaking is minimal as energy companies are heavily dominated by men.

As users, people have different energy needs linked to their different gender roles, and gender blindness has led to women’s needs often being ignored. On  the 1995 paper "Gender issues in energy policy", Jyoti Kirit Parikh, current Executive Director of Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe), emphasizes the need for better understanding of theses issues for women engaged in different sectors, whether agriculture, transport, industries, household and the energy sector itself (e.g. charcoal making, fuel gathering and fuel marketing). 

However, women’s energy needs go far beyond cooking, as many other household tasks are gendered, such as water collection, pounding grain, washing clothes, and cleaning. Ana Pueyo and Mar Maestre, in the article "Linking energy access, gender and poverty", emphasize that women’s labor time and income increase as electricity reduces household drudgery and improved lightning increases the length of the day, hence making more time available for other productive tasks.

As suppliers, the energy sector has traditionally been male-dominated. The article We Need More Women in the Energy Sector, by Katie Mehnert, discloses that in the USA only 15 per cent of employees in oil and gas are women, and that number shrinks further for higher-paying technical jobs. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) estimates that women’s participation in the renewable energy sector is higher than in the energy sector as a whole, employing about 32 per cent women, compared to 22 per cent in the energy sector overall. Still, it remains significantly smaller than men’s participation, and even smaller in jobs related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Energy systems are undergoing rapid, significant, and disruptive change; major positive trends under way could catalyze the closing of energy access gaps around the world, which include the decentralization of energy generation and distribution to reach remote area, as well as the increase of women’s business ownership in some developing countries. Nonetheless, trends such as the increasing populations in urban informal settlements and in humanitarian settings are problematic for energy access.

According to ENERGIA, a group of women involved in gender and energy work in developing countries founded in 1996, gender inequality impedes the leveraging of these trends to expand energy access to those who need it the most. Women in developing countries are impacted by energy poverty in greater numbers than men, and they do not have the same opportunities as them to take advantage of emerging opportunities that can help deliver energy access for marginalized populations.

A research conducted by Intel ® in 2013 shows that fewer women than men own mobile phones,  gain access to financing, or even have a voice in household decision-making on energy matters.

These realities hinder the potential for achieving universal access to sustainable energy by 2030, as called for under SDG 7. As the British Institute of Development Studies Bulletin emphasizes, delivering sustainable energy to all women and men and their children requires a greater focus on gender equality in both the delivery of and the beneficiaries of sustainable energy services.

Achieving a just and equitable transition to a sustainable energy system will rest on efforts to address gender inequality. To close the global energy access gap, governments and other actors need to reach the 1.06 billion people worldwide who do not have electricity and the 3.04 billion people who do not have clean cooking solutions.

While significant activity is already under way at the intersection of the previously mentioned SDGs, addressing gender equality is not always at the forefront in their implementation. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) reported that governments have pointed to legal and institutional mechanisms that exist to support women’s rights, and the need to integrate a gender perspective in policy and budgeting, but such efforts are stymied by the low level of women in decision-making in the public and private spheres and prevailing social norms that perpetuate gender inequality.

Implementation of the global climate change policy framework also struggles to put women at the center of access to renewable energy, as reported by the British Institute of Development Studies Bulletin. Following the Paris Agreement, countries outlined post-2020 actions to reduce emissions, many of which charted complementary efforts to enhance energy access.

While more than half of the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) submitted by sub-Saharan African countries recognize the importance of affordable and reliable energy access to development, only 40 per cent of the NDC submissions reference gender equality or women. And among these countries only a few highlight the participation of women in energy decision making and in sustainable energy programs and training, as stated by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Energy is essential to nearly all aspects of our lives but it means different things to different people. To understand the gender implications of energy issues, it is important to raise questions about roles: who does what, who owns what, who makes decisions about what and how, who wins and loses in a planned intervention.

This article shows only a glimpse of the issue; we invite our readers to further explore the subject and to engage with the EmpoderaClima research network!