At the meeting of REScoop.eu Gender Power and Inclusion Working Group on July 10th, Katharina Habersbrunner from Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF e.V.) presented the activities of project ‘EUWES (Empowering Underrepresented Women in the Energy Sector)’.
Despite the holiday season resulting in a smaller discussion group, diverse stakeholders joined – Antonia Proka, Heleen Schockaert, and Stavroula Pappa (REScoop.eu), Sara Gollessi (enostra, Italy), Miriam Rodriguez (Electra Energy coop &AEMENER, Greece and Spain), and Katharina Habersbrunner (WECF & BBEn, Germany). They exchanged knowledge and had interesting discussions on strengthening all genders to achieve gender-just energy communities.
This Gender Power & Inclusion Working Group (Gender Power & Inclusion WG) of REScoop.eu represents a broad network of energy cooperatives dedicated to a gender just energy transition through the REScoop model. REScoops are energy cooperatives, also called citizen or renewable energy cooperatives. It follows a business model of founding and managing energy cooperatives with active citizen participation and profit sharing among the members. As energy is owned by citizen members, for some communities where gender inequality is prevalent, it is not taken for granted, WLINTA* members own it and represent the management level. The Gender Power & Inclusion WG addresses these issues to ensure gender-just transition in all aspects of the energy cooperatives through various European projects in the network.
How does EUWES impact on the gender-just energy cooperatives?
Energy cooperatives are significantly shaped by stakeholders in the energy sector, such as authorities and CSOs, the private sector, research and academia, and individuals such as employees, students, and civil society. Each stakeholder must be aware of existing gender inequalities and the benefits of gender-equal energy transitions in order to actively challenge traditionally dominant gender norms in the sector.
Under working package 2, the EUWES team offers tailored workshops for different stakeholder groups, e.g. for the private sector and energy cooperatives. Additionally, it will reach out to policymakers at the national and EU levels. These recommendations are based on joint research and exchange with EUWES partners from Croatia, Germany, Slovenia, and Spain. WECF e.V. has drafted policy recommendations advocating for specific legislation or changes on German national level.
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Are you interested in our workshop offer? Contact us via euwes_internal@wecf.org
