Women as leaders of renewable energy shift in heating and cooling

Women as leaders of renewable energy shift in heating and cooling

Meeting the EU’s climate ambitions outlined in the EU Green Deal will be, by design, a transformative process for our economies and societies. Delivering on promises of sizable emission reduction targets in the medium term and climate neutrality in the long term will mean taking innovative approaches and making sure to unlock any untapped potential. 

A critical question worth asking, then, is “what is the energy sector missing out on at the moment?”. According to a growing body of literature one of the answers is quite simple: equality of opportunities and the engagement of women.  

Women are underrepresented in STEM jobs (28%) the renewable energy workforce (32%, IRENA) and the core argument behind this vision is that drawing from a bigger and more diverse pool of talents in the energy sector would not be just desirable in itself, but would also stimulate sustainable economic growth and innovation. EIGE calculated that “by 2050, improving gender equality would lead to an increase in EU (GDP) per capita by 6.1 to 9.6%, which amounts to €1.95 to €3.15 trillion”

Women have great potential as agents of change for many non-economic reasons as well. For example, they show more concern than men over environmental and climate change. They also tend to have closer ties with their local communities and would be able to play a key role in the transition from a fossil-fuelled centralized model to a renewable and decentralized one, adopting a more inclusive decision making approach and creating successful local value chains. 

It is with this in mind that the W4RES project aims at paving the way forward supporting the uptake of renewable energy in heating and cooling from a gender-driven perspective. At its current stage the project is offering a set of free support services and activities including a mix of business and technical support measures, capacity building and awareness raising campaigns.

W4RES Support Services

The W4RES project is looking for businesses, organizations or energy communities operating in the Belgian Renewable Heating and Cooling sector, but also researchers and experts looking to develop a project, initiative or start-up related to RHC. 

W4RES is an EU-Funded Project running from 2020 to 2023 which aims at scaling up the involvement of women and the uptake of solutions in the Renewable Heating and Cooling (RHC) sector via replicable support measures tested and validated across 8 countries.

The expertise of the W4RES consortium of partners has already supported over 25 projects and initiatives responding to their specific needs:

• Our business experts are delivering market and value chain analysis, sustainable business modeling, customized research of funding opportunities and training on proposal writing.
• Specialized NGOs are offering gender-mainstreaming focused training and other capacity building activities to unlock the untapped potential linked to the participation of women in the sector.
• High profile universities among our partners are performing assessments of technical feasibility and environmental impact, analysis of energy demands and other technical consulting and monitoring services.
• The far-reaching international network of the W4RES team is open and available to the participants, who are also guided in their search for innovation funding and strategic partnerships (for example within the context of the European Enterprise Network)

For any questions, do not hesitate to reach out the W4RES Regional Hub for Belgium (g.zendron@white-research.eu or d.casarin@white-research.eu) or visit the W4RES website.