Women Need To Be Involved In Decisions Of Energy Production And Consumption …Says the transition has potential to keep traditional values Intact

By:Justicia Shipena
Deputy Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Gauri Singh, at the Women Energise Women Conference in München, Germany, expressed the need for women to be included in the decision-making process regarding how energy is produced and consumed.
The second edition of the conference, with the theme “Financing the energy transition and investing in women”, drew participants from all over the world including Namibia to participate in panel discussions, workshops, and creative formats on energy and gender issues.
The Women Energise Women Conference gave women the chance to network with one another, increase their visibility on global stages, and advance the conversation on the energy transition.
“There is also a need to get women involved in the decision-making process about how energy gets produced and consumed because the household level women anyway are responsible for the behavioural patterns that determine how we consume energy,” said Singh in an interview with The Villager.
Despite the fact that firewood and crop waste are commonly used in rural areas as a source of energy for cooking, Singh suggested that women may prefer a more contemporary method that is in tune with nature and does not pollute, in addition to giving them more time to complete other tasks that they are unable to complete at the moment.
In Africa, around 63% of households use wood fuel for cooking, according to statistics.
“For example, when I look at women in a rural household, I would spend maybe three to four hours collecting firewood for cooking and getting food for the family; now is this something women want to continue doing? I don’t think so.”
Singh said there is to show people that they have more control over how they obtain and use energy, among other aspects of a decentralised energy system like renewables that are fundamentally different from a grid.
Since energy plays a significant role in everyone’s lives, Singh stated that it is crucial that the globe debunk the myths around it.
She pointed out that the question is not how people get their energy, but rather whether it is energy that contributes to pollution or energy that people can use in a way that is good for the environment.
The need for renewable energy and the need to reduce carbon emissions are both obvious, but both can be combined with traditional and cultural values since, according to Singh, in every culture, people are rooted in nature.
“I think it is important to understand that renewable energy is an energy form that actually has potential to keep our way of life and cultural values more intact than anything else,” she emphasised.
Also speaking to The Villager, Africa Executive Director for ONE Campaign Serah Makka said she does not think people have a value judgement on the just transition .
“In the last three years with Covid-19 the poverty rates have skyrocketed. So, what people have value judgement on is how much they have to spend for their family and if we can solve that through a just transition. I donot think it matters how you transition,” Makkaexplained.
She said it is important to make sure that communities benefit from economic transition, adding that although there are workarounds, there have been difficulties in obtaining common land for solar.
Makka explained that the issue is not a just transition but rather how people engage with communities to ensure that their needs are met and that they are not forgotten during the process.
She mentioned that she had seen efforts made towards clean cooking when questioned about investments for women in the just transition.
Although there is increased interest, she said that regardless of where they are from, data generally show that women receive less funding than men.
According to her, this industry demonstrates that Africa as a whole received around 2% of all global investments in renewable energy, with women receiving roughly 2.8% of those funds for their own resourcing.
“Again because women are the ones in charge of the household; they are household managers, they are looking at what is the price for cooking gas, how can I get it cheaper, if I can get wood cheaper I’ll get wood cheaper. So they are not descending that well. I am going to buy more because it is just a way of transitioning, they are just based on economics.”
She added: “We are saying to a woman; why don’t you buy this clean cooking energy rather than chopping off this wood and it has to make economic sense to her. When it doesn’t she will choose the one that makes more economic sense to her.”
On the other hand, Makka remarked that a lot of work had begun with cooking gas with regard to women as consumers of this energy.
She also noted that because Africa is not a centre for carbon credit markets, the carbon credit market is very active.
Africa’s ecosystems contain enormous amounts of carbon, and the Congo forests, known as the world’s second lung, can take in around 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 annually. Around 8% of the carbon derived from forests worldwide is stored in the Congo Basin. African nations unveiled the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative at COP27 with the goal of generating 300 million carbon credits yearly. By 2030, the plan hopes to generate $6 billion in income and 30 million new jobs.
According to Makka, whoever designs the system is the one who benefits from it. She added that when Africa isnot present when the system is designed and it takes place somewhere else, Africa misses out on the benefits.
“So when you bring your own carbon that you have captured to the global market they might be like; well let’s price this lower. Africa at the very minimum must ascertain that our carbon is well priced,” she stressed.
“I am really excited to see how we are getting into carbon pricing and that will help us with what we are saving in carbon emissions and we can have a return on those savings.”
Makka also discussed certificates in the carbon market, indicating that in order to sell carbon, one must first be able to prove that it is valuable.
Sshe stated that the certification procedure is the business of carbon pricing, stressing that Africa is moving in that direction and that she believes it to be the best course of action.