Prominent energy figures from around the world participated in a virtual dialogue last month on ways to accelerate progress in diversity and inclusion in energy. The event was hosted by Dr. Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the IEA. Ambassador Madeleine Chenette, Permanent Representative of Canada to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); and the international initiative for clean energy, education and empowerment (C3E International).
The international C3E initiative under the IEA's Technological Cooperation Program and the Ministry of Clean Energy aims to enable greater gender diversity in clean energy professions, recognizing that in moving to a clean energy future, everyone potential talents must be used in order to be successful.
Participants from across the energy sector attended the event on December 2, 2020 to share perspectives and insights on what is really important in the industry. Dr. Birol stressed that diversity and inclusion are priorities for its modernization agenda for the IEA because “decision-making benefits from the strength of different perspectives”. He noted that the proportion of women in leadership positions at the IEA has increased from 16% in 2015 to 38% today. Dr. Birol said he was “pleased that the virtual dialogue represented voices from across the IEA family reflecting the agency's” All Fuels, All Technologies “approach.”
Ambassador Chenette stressed that the participation and representation of women in the energy sector is far below that in other comparable sectors and set out the moral, political and strategic imperatives to accelerate progress. She stressed that high-level as well as personal leadership qualities are essential for the Overcoming slow advances are vital, and thanked Dr. Birol for his leadership in emphasizing the need to make the economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis sustainable.
Empowering women for clean energy transition is one way to achieve sustainable recreations, said Ambassador Chenette, calling for greater efforts to implement the “what is measured is done” principle. She noted, “It is crucial that we all recognize the economic, environmental and social benefits of gender equality.”
Elbia Gannoum, CEO of ABEEólica, the Brazilian wind energy association, said that “there is an emergency building across the energy sector in Brazil – companies are looking for solutions to make the switch” to reap the benefits of diversity and inclusion. Due to the growing demand for resources and tools, Ms. Gannoum announced the creation of the Energia da Transformação platform, which aims to promote inclusion and diversity in the Brazilian energy sector based on collaboration, knowledge sharing and awareness raising.
A data-driven approach is essential to accelerate progress across the industry. Laura McGee, founder and CEO of Diversio, a Canada-based company that provides an information platform to measure, track and improve diversity and inclusion, said that “the energy sector is in the middle of the field compared to some sectors and could achieve Fast Progress by learning from other industries. “Data-driven diagnostics are critical to avoiding missteps and allocating resources to targeted vulnerabilities,” she added.
Lyu Fang, a senior engineer at the China Academy of Sciences' Electrical Engineering Department, shared her personal journey from beginning her career in remote solar PV stations in China to leadership positions in the country's vast renewable energy industry. Today Ms. Fang is General Secretary of the PV Committee of the China Green Supply Chain Alliance and C3E International China Global Ambassador. She stressed that China's climate ambitions through “rising solar industries” offer many growth opportunities for clean energy. She said these should be used to expedite women's participation and representation in the energy.
Strengthening gender diversity in the energy industry requires relentless long-term efforts to promote inclusion. Joel Couse, Special Advisor to the IEA, stressed that the energy industry is facing the challenge of finding and retaining talented people in a highly competitive global market, including harnessing the opportunities for clean energy transition. On the supply side, increasing the number of women participating in STEM programs remains a priority in order to achieve a gender balance. Getting women into energy careers is not enough, however, he said, adding that the industry must actively support women in order to get beyond the experience surge before responsibility for care limits their options for certain types of operational jobs. A key challenge is shifting attitudes and addressing harmful stereotypes about career roles and advancement opportunities that are unnecessarily holding back women and men in the talent pipeline, Couse said. Setting quantitative goals and dates helps focus efforts on progress.
Leading energy figures call for action
Mechthild Wörsdörfer, IEA Director for Sustainability, Technology and Perspectives, who heads the agency's Gender Diversity Task Force, concluded the virtual dialogue, thanking the participants for promoting change and reiterating that the IEA Gender Initiative is geared towards being data-driven Bringing solutions to the table.
In 2020, the IEA Gender Initiative began to fulfill the mandate on equal opportunities in the energy sector set by ministers from the IEA member states. The agency started by collecting more disaggregated data on gender and energy.
Strengthening collaboration is key. The IEA and OECD are working together to collect data on women in employment, entrepreneurship and decision-making in the energy sector and to develop indicators on the gender of energy technology inventors to be published in 2021.
The initiative has identified the lack of good and comparable data on gender trends in the energy sector and the urgent need to improve methodology, which is why the IEA has taken on the role of coordinator for the knowledge and data collection work stream from C3E International.
The IEA will also conduct a survey among members of the IEA Energy Business Council to develop a basis for existing corporate practices. The results and analyzes of the survey will be published in the coming months.
The agency is also investigating how gender diversity can be integrated into its regular analytical work, for example in the World Energy Outlook, Energy Efficiency Measurement and the Clean Energy Transition Program, which supports key partner countries in developing and implementing strategies. This includes the planning of a policy package to implement energy efficiency measures in India that will predominantly affect the female workforce. The IEA is also prioritizing new work on person-to-person clean energy transitions, including an analysis of the gender dimensions.
To share these insights and insights and to develop a mutual understanding of the evidence base and how it works, the IEA will continue to bring together government, industry and civil society actors to review data and analysis and identify priority actions.
With the help of partners and governments within the IEA family and C3E International, the IEA Gender Initiative can help into the future Mainstream diversity and inclusion in energy policy. The IEA Gender Initiative aims to develop a better understanding of gender balance across the energy sector and to set policy priorities in future decisions. The initiative will present its first progress report in 2021.