Women Empowering the Global Energy Transition

(L to R): Dr. Christine Falken-Grosser (BMWi, Germany), Ms. Kanika Chawla (Council on Energy, Environment and Water, India), Mr. Gaurav Mehta (Dharma Life, India), Dr. Rashi Gupta (Vision Mechatronics, India), and Ms. Ritu Lal (Amplus Solar, India)

Dr. Christine Falken-Grosser, Head of Division, German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), inaugurated the first panel discussion held at the 8th Indo-German Energy Forum. During the session, panelists discussed with the audience the myriad ways in which women are further empowering the global energy transition. 

Ms. Christine Lins, Executive Director of the Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition (GWNET), who participated in the discussion remotely via video conference, presented the first draft of a study on strategies to increase women’s employment in the sustainable energy sector. Both she and Ms. Ritu Lal highlighted the importance of fostering female students in STEM fields in order to improve gender diversity in the energy sector. In India, over 30% of engineering and technology students are female, which represents one of the highest rates in the world. This offers a prime opportunity for the energy sector to capitalise on and further cultivate through, for instance, the adoption of flexible work policies. Mr. Gaurav Mehta emphasised the pivotal role played by rural women with regard to choosing energy sources. As women tend to opt for clean sources of energy, strengthening women’s rights would contribute to an increase in the share of renewables.

IGEF encourages you to visit the GWNET resource page and peruse its collection of publications including reports, case studies, tools and guidelines, which expand on the vital role played by women in the worldwide energy transition.

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