Wednesday January 27th - The first gender session of the European Citizen Energy Academy (EUCENA) took place introducing us to the gender and energy nexus.

In an interactive session organised by Women Engage for a Common Future (WECF), we looked into the energy transition from a gender perspective and discussed the potential of gender-just energy communities to accelerate the transition.

Through the EUCENA project, REScoop.eu focuses on the topic of gender equality and community energy and engages her network to join this important discussion.

Summary of the session

Marika Kuschan kicked off the meeting, underlining that gender inequalities go beyond the issue of participation and representation. It's also about recognition and distribution. She stressed that “thinking about gender means that the issues of gender are taken care of from the beginning” of a decision-making process.

The session continued with a guided exercise by Regina Drexel called the “House of our dreams”. Focusing on the production and use of energy in our dream house, participants tried to identify any potential differences between different gender groups.

Women Empower energy communities

Afterwards, Katharina Habersbrunner briefly discussed the benefits of a gender just energy transition, emphasising that the participation of women offers more expertise and engagement to push the energy transition from the bottom up. She also mentioned that according to research “gender-just climate and energy projects have a wider impact and broader scope”.

To conclude our first session, Miriam Rodriguez-Ruiz, president of Electra Energy cooperative shared experiences from her involvement in the field in Greece and Spain. She elaborated on good practices of gender-just energy communities. Central is her engagement in mentoring young women to be involved in the energy sector.

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Watch the recording of this first EUCENA session below and find the presentations here.

Stay tuned for the next gender-energy session which will focus on the specific tools energy communities can use to ensure gender equality and justice in their operations!

First EUCENA Gender & Energy Session - 27.01.2021

About EUCENA

EUCENA supports the citizen energy movement throughout Europe by fostering knowledge creation and transfer between Southeast and Central Europe. More specifically, it provides knowledge and tools on community building, development and cooperation between communities. EUCENA is supported by the European Climate Initiative (EUKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU).

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