We must press for more attention to women’s roles in clean energy and ‘green’ economies.

For more than twelve years I have been working on planning and advocacy activities related to expanding access to energy in developing countries.

Much of this work has centered on the energy needs of women in developing countries, because it is generally women and girls who are responsible for collecting firewood or other biomass fuels for cooking and heating, and whose time and activities are most constrained by lack of access to electricity, gas or liquid fuels.

Women and access to energy

In developing countries, energy access projects can reduce emissions and empower women. Women’s opportunities to escape from poverty are limited, in part, by the demands of fuel collection.

In Mali, for example, where biomass provides about 80% of the country’s energy, women may spend more than a third of their time collecting wood. In Nepal, women in rural areas work as many as 11-14 hours a day, mainly due to the absence of energy-based technology to ease their work burdens.

For poor women, expanded energy access would offer huge benefits in terms of the MDG targets, by relieving their time burdens and health risks, supporting new possibilities for income-generating activities, and allowing more girls to attend school.

However, developing country energy policies and investments have generally focused on meeting urban and industrial energy demands, and little funding or attention has gone to rural energy access that would offer relief and new opportunities for economic and social development. This is not a small issue, since close to 2.4 billion people in developing countries rely on traditional biomass fuels.

Small interventions

The smoke from cooking fires in rural villages makes up only a very small percentage of global greenhouse gas emissions, and as a result few of the investments in emission reductions in developing countries so far have touched on the need for clean, modern energy sources for rural economic development in off-grid areas. The Clean Development Mechanism set up under the Kyoto Protocol has mostly been used for large-scale electricity generation projects.

However, there has recently been approval for bundling or aggregating many small clean energy interventions, such as distribution of more efficient, cleaner burning cook stoves, into one project. In this way, sales of greenhouse gas emission reduction credits can be used to finance better energy access for a number of small villages, and potentially improve the lives of rural women, and their families and communities.

Need for a climate fund?

The Grameen Shakti program in Bangladesh is already bundling small projects in rural areas involving, for example, installation of solar panels, and training female engineers as installers. There are also discussions about whether a special climate fund is needed that would support women’s involvement in cleaner energy systems and green enterprises.

The Upesi Rural Stoves project in western Kenya is a good example of engaging women in designing, producing and marketing improved stoves, which upgraded their skills and incomes, and also reduced smoke production, carbon emissions and fuel wood pressures.

A GEF/World Bank project on Household Energy and Universal Rural Access in Mali, has also involved women in designing improved stoves to increase energy access and at the same time reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Building resilient communities

Climate adaption plans can also engage women in building more resilient communities.

Discussions about women and climate change tend to emphasize the vulnerability of women, especially in poorer countries, due to their comparative lack of education, employment, training, financing, social and political influence. Yet even poor women are not just victims of adversity. They are also creators, producers, caretakers, and community builders, and can help lead effective responses to climate change.

Still, many of the popular visions of a sustainable future revolve around technological solutions, such as designing new electric cars and ‘smart grid’ infrastructure, setting up solar panels or wind turbines, or insulating and retrofitting houses to make them more energy efficient that many view as traditionally male types of employment, such as engineering and the construction trades.

The need for training

One response is that more women should get training so they are prepared to take on these new green jobs, like the women in Bangladesh. This makes sense. It is also important to ensure that technical schools, training programs and employment opportunities are open and accessible to women.

However, green jobs will involve more than construction and engineering. There will be ample opportunities for women with skills and education to provide management, administrative and financial services, legal advice and equity investments in green energy companies.

Behaviors, customs, and assumptions

Another approach is to point out that we really need more than technical solutions to respond to climate change, and to the financial crisis. In order to more towards a truly green economy – one that is equitable and environmentally sustainable, and does not depend on ever-increasing growth and resource comsumption – we will need changes in a wide variety of deeply-ingrained habits, behaviors, customs, and assumptions. And we need everyone to be involved.

Much can be done to move social and economic habits towards sustainability by engaging women as promoters of family health, safety, and prospects for a safe and satisfying world. Women can also have an enormous influence at home and in their workplaces, as thought leaders, teachers, architects and designers of healthy communities.

The opinions expressed in this text are those of the author.