On 16 March 2023 (10:00-11:00 CET), the GGKP Gender Expert Group, with the Green Finance Platform, is hosting a webinar on "Financing Pathways for Gender-Just Energy Transitions".
The energy sector is largely dominated by a male workforce, and women and men are impacted differently by both the climate crisis and energy poverty. Transitioning towards low-emission and resilient pathways requires fundamental shifts in how we produce and use energy.
The concept of "Just Transitions" embedded within the Paris Agreement refers to the greening of economies in fair and inclusive ways. Yet gender equality outcomes are often left out from being effectively integrated into just transition initiatives, with ambition low for large scale investments in particular. Financial innovations could support the realisation of gender equality in energy transitions – while meeting investment goals. More tools are needed to integrate gender-just outcomes in climate action.
To this end, the GGKP Gender Expert Group will launch its new report–Powering a Gender-Just Energy Transition–which discusses challenges and opportunities for inclusive energy investments and proposes a Gender-Just Energy Transition Outcomes Framework. The Framework assesses and identifies actionable gender equality outcomes in just energy transition initiatives with the aim of raising the level of ambition for transformative outcomes.
Recording
*The webinar summary is available below.
Speakers
Opening: In Woo Jung, Manager, Green Finance Platform, Green Growth Knowledge Partnership (GGKP)
Moderator: Ingvild Solvang, Head, Climate Action and Inclusive Development Unit, Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI)
Panelists:
- Inka Schomer, Senior Gender and Infrastructure Specialist, International Finance Corporation (IFC)
“As gender specialists, it is important to understand the sector you're working in, understand the project cycle, how investments are made and work with the government and the private sector to get them to understand the opportunities. This will allow having practical conversations on embedding gender into different sectors.”
- Irene Giner-Reichl, Co-Founder and Senior Advisor, Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition (GWNET)
“Let the energy transition process itself be structured in a participatory and inclusive way with full participation of women. Let’s take into account how energy transitions can at the same time be socioeconomic transformations.”
- Maria Elena Valenzuela, Chief Technical Advisor, International Labour Organization (ILO)
“Let's promote social dialogue, incorporate all partners into this discussion and put gender at the centre of climate change and energy transition policies.”
- Taciana Peão Lopes, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Mozambique Women of Energy (MWE)
“Gender integration in climate finance and in the energy sector cannot only be a tick in the box to comply with reporting requirements. More discussions on financing women working in informal sectors will also highly contribute to tackling climate change and energy transition.”
- Zonibel Woods, Senior Social Development Specialist, Asian Development Bank (ADB)
“We have to be intentional about investing in gender equality. Setting a target for women’s employment is not enough if we are not really committed to taking all the steps to attain the targets. We need to make sure that we are investing financial resources that women can benefit from the energy transition.”
Background
The GGKP Gender Expert Group convenes leading experts in green growth and gender with the aim of catalysing collective action towards gender equality and women's empowerment in global green transitions. A collaboration among leading green growth organisations, the Expert Group provides research, capacity building and knowledge sharing to respond to critical knowledge gaps and aid evidence-based policy development processes integrating gender equality in green growth approaches.
The Gender Expert Group produced three papers addressing key knowledge gaps in gender-just transition data, policy and tools.