Women driving the energy transition and climate justice

At ENERGIA, we believe that by enabling and supporting women to play a leading role in the energy transition – from strategy and decision making to energy entrepreneurship and distribution – we can drive essential progress towards a more equitable, sustainable world.

By prioritizing gender equality and women’s empowerment in the energy sector, we can accelerate progress towards SDG 7: universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all.

By harnessing the strengths and networks of women in last-mile communities, we can drive the uptake of cleaner energy sources.

And by enabling environments in which women can fully participate in shaping policies, strategies and solutions that address their distinct needs, we can drive the energy transition, strengthen climate action, and pave the way for a more equitable and resilient future for all.

This project unites all of these elements by empowering women to lead and innovate across the energy value chain – shaping strategy and high-level decision-making processes, and driving the production and distribution of modern energy services.

Advancing gender equality and empowering women in the energy sector are not just moral imperatives—they are catalysts for global sustainable development.

Project status

Active (Phase 7)

Project vision

Women have an equal opportunity to lead, participate in and benefit from universal energy access and a climate-just and inclusive energy transition, as an essential right to development.

Countries

Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, and Global.

The context

The transition to clean, renewable energy is essential for tackling climate change. Access to clean, reliable energy is also essential for meeting women’s basic rights to clean water, sanitation, education, health and security and secure livelihoods. These deep interconnections between gender equality, human rights, and climate justice require equally interconnected solutions.

Through this program, ENERGIA aims to support the achievement of universal energy access and climate justice in a manner that is fair, inclusive and gender transformative. We do this by placing women, who are most affected by the impacts of energy poverty and climate change, at the very center of sustainable energy and climate solutions. And we place issues of human rights, climate and just transitions at the core of all interventions.

Key aims

Women’s economic empowerment and resilience.
Enabling clean energy markets and policy environment.
Gender transformative approaches in clean energy and climate action policies and programs.
Thought leadership to inform future action

Our interconnected approach explicitly addresses gender, energy access and other social inequalities as part of climate change adaptation and mitigation policies and strategies. We aim to improve women’s voice and agency so that they can influence governments and the private sector, and engage in decision-making processes to ensure their rights and perspectives are included.

We aim to strengthen women’s resilience to cope with climate shocks through enabling energy services in other sectors, such as agriculture, where women work in large numbers and where we can integrate a gender and energy perspective into climate policies. We do this by supporting the design and implementation of net-zero, climate-resilient solutions that create opportunities for women.

If the world is to truly achieve universal energy access and reach net-zero emissions by 2050, women must be central to the energy transition at all levels.