Experts Raise Concern over Women, Youth Gaps in Renewable Energy Access

Emma Okonji

Given the global statistics from Renewable Energy Agency that women currently represent only 32 per cent of the renewable energy workforce and they hold fewer than 20 per cent of senior leadership roles globally, experts have stressed the need for women and youth’s participation in policies around renewable energy access, in order to bridge the existing gaps.

The experts said this at a webinar organised by Consumer Advocacy And Empowerment Foundation (CADEF), with the theme: ‘Women And Youth Leading the Clean Energy Transition’, which was moderated by the Communications Officer at CADEF, Oghenerukevwe Wilfred.
The experts discussed how women and youth could influence climate governance, shape Nigeria’s clean tech ecosystem and the need to prepare the next generation workforce for green jobs, bringing their global, national and ecosystem experiences.

It is a general belief that women and youth in developing regions disproportionately bear the cost of energy poverty, from health risks associated with unclean cooking oils to economic exclusion. The webinar therefore addressed these disparities by shifting the narrative from mere participation to leadership, ensuring that energy transition is equitable and most importantly inclusive.
One of the speakers, who doubles as Gender and Youth Analyst at Sustainable Energy for All (SEForAll), Ava Strasser, spoke about Amplifying Voices in Climate Governance. She discussed what it means to be in climate governance for women and youth, and how this works specific to Nigeria. She stressed the need for more women and youth participation in renewable energy in Nigeria in order to bridge the existing gaps.

“Women-founded energy startups are receiving less than three per cent of venture capital. We see these funding gaps not only in the workforce, but also in advocacy, where it’s projected that we’ll reach gender parity at COP in 2043, which is even beyond what our Sustainable Development Goals Agenda 2030 sets as ideal deadline. And this exclusion is a huge missed opportunity because women yield more powerful returns when they’re included, and diversity yields more powerful returns,” Strasser said.
According to her, companies with more women on their boards are more likely to reduce energy consumption, they’re more likely to lower their company’s greenhouse gas emissions, and they are also more likely to see a higher return on equity.

“SEforALL prioritises bridging the skills gap so that we can really unlock the potential of our young energy leaders who are the future,” she further said.

Program Associate, Nigeria Off-Grid Market Acceleration Program (NOMAP), Jennifer Anya, who also spoke at the webinar, emphasised on the theme: ‘Women And Youth Leading the Clean Energy Transition’.

According to her, 60 per cent of Nigeria’s energy is made up of youth, and this indicates that government needs to consider the youth and women when designing and building the energy ecosystem.
She gave instances of typical Nigerian buildings where the kitchens are separated from the main buildings and the kitchens are not connected to electricity, because it is perceived that the women are in charge of the kitchen and do not need electricity in the kitchen, which according to her, is about excluding the women.

“So when you don’t take into consideration women in designing systems or designing assets, you end up realizing that they end up having issues, or they end up not being included in whatever it is that you’re designing, which ends up being a system that lacks the main reason for what it was designed in the first place.

“Again, Nigeria is currently at the crossroad where there is a climate action and there is a market transformation. So how do we do all of these things? How do we make sure that we are designing systems that take into consideration the fact that we need to grow our economy, the fact that we also need to improve youth adoption, and the fact that we need to make sure that women are also being placed in the forefront of these designs,” Anya said. She stressed the need for more capacity building initiatives for women and youth in Nigeria to boost their skills in climate governance and clean energy.
Innovations Programs Manager at Jacob’s Ladder Africa (JLA), Kevin Okwako is another speaker that highlighted five key areas that countries must consider during clean energy transition. One of the five key areas, according to him, is awareness creation for women and youths in clean energy transition.

“So this is also another point of caution so that we do not push green and then make it unaffordable. Clean energy is needed but we need to be aware of things that have failed before so that even as you’re transitioning into clean energy, we start looking at those different things. So these five areas are very interesting things to be looked at even as we think about different policies of the different skills that we need to get or the different innovations that we can come up with,” Okwako said.